


One A Day

by hallow777



Category: Castle
Genre: Humor, Multi, Randomness, borderline crack on some, pure crack on others
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-18
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-08 00:16:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 50
Words: 29,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/437004
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hallow777/pseuds/hallow777
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A collection of mini-stories. 50: It's the second anniversary of Castle working with Beckett, time to celebrate</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. one a day keeps the bad babysitters away

Homicide Detectives Ryan and Esposito have faced lots of challenges during their careers, but this was by far the worst.

"Hey, bro, how does this diaper go!" Esposito yelled frantically as he tried to put the diaper on the squirming baby. They had successfully gotten the smelly diaper off the small boy, the only casualty being Ryan's shirt, but now they couldn't get a clean one back on him.

"Come on, it can't be that hard to put the diaper on..." Ryan said, dressed in a clean shirt, as he walked back over to the kitchen counter where Esposito was changing the baby.

"It won't fit right. Are you sure this is the right size?"

"That's the ones they left for us, let me try." Ryan nudged his partner out of the way, thinking it would be easy to secure the diaper, but five minutes later, the tiny baby was still butt-naked.

And then, with no warning at all, the little baby boy decided he really needed to go.

"AH!" The two inexperienced detectives grabbed the nearest kitchen supplies to shield themselves from the spray, vowing to never, ever, babysit for the Castles ever again.


	2. one a day keeps the overly helpful employees away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett and Alexis run into each other while they are doing some shopping.

Detective Beckett was casually browsing through the racks of bras at Victoria's Secret when she happened to look up and see Alexis nervously making her way into the large store. She waited a few minutes to see if anyone else was with the girl before making her way over to her, greeting the teen when she got close enough.

"Detective Beckett! Hi..." The older woman's sudden presence startled Alexis into dropping the bra and panty set she was holding, but Beckett just smiled at the girl.

"Are you here by yourself? Martha isn't with you?"

"Oh god no, last time Grams came with me was when I was fourteen and let's just say that is an experience I will probably never forget. This is the first time I've been here since then..." Alexis trailed off, feeling slightly ridiculous being nervous about being in a store.

Seeing the girl's nervousness, and remembering her own first experience being alone in such a store, Beckett tried to reassure the girl.

"I remember the first time I came here alone I was about your age. I was so nervous and jumpy that I ended up knocking over one of the display racks when an employee asked if I needed any help."

"Really?"

"Yup, and that wasn't the worst of it. The old math teacher I had that year had been in there shopping with his wife and the commotion brought his attention to me. I remember we couldn't look at each other for weeks. There is just something wrong about seeing your teacher in Victoria's Secret."

Beckett couldn't help but laugh when Alexis carefully looked around the store, making sure none of her teachers were there.

"Tell you what, why don't we shop around together? To tell you the truth, I still don't like coming here by myself. Mostly because if you are here alone, the employees feel like they need to descend upon you like starving vultures."

Alexis looked around at the overly happy employees who were eying her then turned back to the detective. "Deal."


	3. one a day does not keep the meddling ghosts away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett has been kidnapped and Castle gets help from an unlikely source. Beckett's mother.

Two hours. That's all the time they had left to find Beckett before her kidnapper turned into her killer.

Six hours ago Beckett had been taken from her apartment and all they were left with was a 911 call from the kidnapper saying that he had taken her, and would kill her in eight hours.

Two hours to go, and they had absolutely nothing. Not a single shred of evidence to even hint at where he might have taken her, or even who or why he did it.

It was impossible to find her in that amount of time, with nothing to go on, and the kidnapper knew it.

Castle was trying to be optimistic, but the situation was not looking good. They needed a lead, a strong lead, right now, but it wasn't like someone was just going to pop up and give them Beckett's location.

He turned around with this newly refilled, for the seventh time, cup of coffee, only to have it slip from his fingers when he saw Beckett standing in the doorway of the break room. Or at least, that's what his sleep deprived brain thought at first glance, but once he looked closer at her, it wasn't Beckett at all, though the woman sure looked a lot like her. Just a little older and a little shorter and the longer Castle looked at the woman, he started to realize he had seen this woman before.

He had seen her picture before, clipped to the case file of Johanna Beckett.

"It's not her time, you have to go save her." Castle let out an involuntary squeak when the woman spoke, but quickly paid attention when she started reciting an address. He repeated the address back to her, mostly from habit, and the ghost of a woman smiled.

"Say 'hi' to her for me."

And then she disappeared. There was no smoke, no illusion, or even a sound. Just one second she was there, and the next she was gone.

Had this been any other time, Castle surely would have been excited beyond belief at having his first 'supernatural experience', but the clock was still ticking.

Thirty minutes later, the SWAT team was surrounding an old abandoned apartment building that was located at the address Castle had given them. It had taken a little while to convince them to check out the address, but since they had no other leads, and they trusted Castle, they headed out to the address.

When the Captain gave the signal, the team rushed the building, and within minutes, Beckett was being looked over by paramedics who determined that she was fine.

"How did you know where to find me?" She asked a little while later when Castle was escorting her home. "The boys said that you just randomly came out of the break room saying you knew where I was."

They reached her door and he turned to her with a smile. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Castle..."

"Goodnight, Detective!" He said, turning to head back to the elevators. "Oh yeah, your mom says to tell you 'hi'."

Beckett shook her head then headed into her apartment, clearly wondering if her partner had finally lost his mind, never noticing the ghostly figure watching her with a smile on her face.

There wasn't a day that went by that Johanna didn't miss being among the living, but there were definitely perks to being a ghost.

Especially now that she knew that her daughter's writer friend seemed to be from a long line of psychics and was easily able to see, and hear her, if she wanted him to.

Looks like she could still meddle in her daughter's love life after all.


	4. one a day ends up on page six eventually...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryan is looking for Beckett, and Esposito knows exactly where to find her.

"Hey, either of you seen Beckett? I need to get her to sign off on something." Ryan said as he approached his partner's desk, coming to a stop next to the short medical examiner who was leaning against Esposito's desk.

"I'll give you two guesses, bro, and the first one doesn't count."

"Castle?"

Esposito and Lanie both nodded before Lanie spoke up. "Man, can you believe they still think that none of us know?"

"Oh let them have their fun, it'll all end up on page six eventually." Lanie and Esposito looked at each other and seemed to forget about what was going on around them while Ryan just stood off to the side with an amused expression on his face, thinking about a similar conversation Beckett and Castle had had about them a while back.

He couldn't wait until the day they all found out that the others had known practically since they each started dating, it was going to be hilarious.


	5. one a day will keep the Castles up all night...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett has some news for Castle. He is in trouble, double trouble.

"Richard Alexander Rodgers." Castle tensed up as his wife's voice rang throughout the loft, knowing that she only used his former name when she was really irritated with him.

Kate Beckett-Castle had a right to be angry at her husband, seeing as he did something she specifically asked him not to do on his three day book related trip to the West Coast.

"I believe we agreed that you wouldn't go crazy on the baby stuff until after my appointment today? So that we'd actually know whether to get boy or girl things?"

"Yeah but I was so bored! And they had all these cute shops! Look at this." He pulled out the cutest little panda footie pajama set and she could barely keep the smile from showing on her face. "How could I have said no to that?"

She didn't answer him, and instead started looking through the piles of clothes and other baby gadgets until she finally came to the car seat.

Castle watched as she picked it up and started checking it out, only to set it down a few minutes later and turn to look at him.

"Where did you get this?" Her tone was completely neutral, and he didn't know what to think of it. So of course, he took the safest route and assumed she didn't like it for whatever reason a pregnant woman might come up with.

"I actually picked that up here in the city, in case there was something wrong with it, or you didn't like it, so we could take it back. The store shouldn't close for another few hours if you want me to take it back now?"

"Get your coat." Confused, he went to grab his coat and pull on some shoes while trying to figure out why she didn't like it. It was a neutral color scheme, though it was a little on the girly side. Did that mean they were having a boy?

When he came back into the living room, he asked her that question and got a 'no' in reply.

"Then why are we taking it back? It's perfectly fine for a girl."

"I know."

"Then why?"

For the first time since she arrived home, she finally gave in and let a smirk show on her face before walking past him and patting him on the back.

"Because dear Ricky, I don't think it's possible to carry twins in the same car seat."


	6. one a day keeps the bad choices away... part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gun pressed against her back makes Beckett rethink a bad choice she made. Part 1.

Beckett slid the key into the lock then entered the apartment she called home. As soon as she stepped inside, she knew something was wrong.

Her hand slid from the doorknob and moved down to pull her gun out before she pushed the door open and headed inside, keeping her eyes open for anything.

She cleared the living room and kitchen, then moved into the bedroom. That was clear as well so she headed back out, that's when she felt a gun pressing against her spine. Where had he come from? She guessed he had been hiding behind the bedroom door the whole time.

"Put the gun down, Detective. Wouldn't want anyone getting hurt, now would we?" He pushed the gun more forcefully into her back and she carefully, and slowly, place the gun down on the ground and the man kicked it away from her.

"Good, now hands in the air so I can make sure you don't try anything funny."

She did as he said before asking a question, although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I think you know exactly why I am doing this. You made a choice, a very bad choice. And now you have to deal with the consequences."

Damn, she was afraid that's what this was about.

He took one of her raised arms and spun her around so she was facing him. He pressed the barrel of the fully loaded gun against her chest, right over her heart, and looked straight into her eyes with his own unforgiving ones.

She'd made a horrible mistake, and she knew it was unlikely that she would be forgiven, but she had to try anyway.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Castle."

To Be Continued...


	7. one a day keeps the bad choices away... part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A gun pressed against her back makes Beckett rethink a bad choice she made.

"It doesn't have to be this way, Castle."

"Oh but it does, dear Detective." He backed away from her, still keeping the gun pointed right at her chest. Beckett looked around trying to figure out if there was something she could use to get away, but the only thing nearby were two bookcases filled with books. She was considering tipping them over, knowing he would go for them, but he was one step ahead of her.

Castle took her arm and pulled her into the bedroom, positioning them so that her back was towards the bed and he was a few feet in front of her.

"Do you regret it?"

She did, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing, since he was just going to shoot her anyway.

"Never."

She smirked, and he glared before smirking as well.

"I love you, detective, but I just don't think I can forgive this."

He pulled the trigger and the sound of the shot filled the room as it hit her straight in the chest. Her body jerked backwards, and he just kept pulling the trigger until the gun was empty, each shot making her take a step back until she dramatically fell on the bed, lying completely still.

"You knew I was saving that last Pudding Pop for a special occasion, but you just had to eat it, didn't you? Well at least I know they will be safe from you from now on."

He left her there on the bed and she waited a few minutes before sitting up and rubbing her chest where the darts had hit, grumbling about how those stupid little darts could sting sometimes.

Beckett looked at the Nerf darts littering the floor of their bedroom and shook her head at her boyfriend's overly dramatic reaction to his missing Pudding Pop. Her eyes drifted over to the closet then back to the doorway, wheels already turning in her head.

Quietly, she got up and pulled out the automatic Nerf gun she knew he kept in there, along with a large ammo pack, and stealthily crept into the kitchen where she knew Castle would be sulking.

Payback time.


	8. one a day keeps the Pattern away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU! Special Agent Kate Beckett has to enlist the help of con-man Richard Castle to save her dying partner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I wrote this I was trying to get people to watch Fringe by catching their interest so it's basically word for word part of the pilot episode of Fringe with Caskett instead of Polivia.

Special Agent Kate Beckett was a woman on a mission. Her latest case was a strange one, involving a plane where everyone was killed by a strange substance that melted their skin, and her boss was definitely keeping something from her.

When her lover, and partner, Will Sorenson was infected with the same substance as the passengers on the plane, she threw herself into the case, determined not to let him die. It took a bit of digging, but she finally came across a man who might be behind this attack, and others, or could at least help her understand what happened on that plane.

His name was Walter Bishop, a brilliant scientist who used to work out of Harvard, who had done some work involving the same things that had happened on that plane. Only problem is, he's been in St. Claire's, a mental institution, for 17 years after his lab assistant was killed in a fire and he was accused of using humans as lab rats.

So not only was her only chance at figuring out what was going on insane, but only relatives of the man were allowed to see him.

So that left her only one choice, to find his son and convince him to go with her to see his father.

Which is why she was currently flying into Baghdad, Iraq to find him, along with Special Agent Kevin Ryan.

"So this guy is Walter Bishop's son?" Ryan held out a picture of the man they were looking for.

"His name is Richard Bishop, but he changed his name to Castle a while back. He's a high-school dropout, IQ at one-ninety, which is fifty points north of genius. Misfit, nomad, hasn't kept a job longer than two months. He's been a wild-land fireman, cargo pilot, and briefly a college chemistry professor. He falsified a degree from MIT, and even manged to get a few papers published before he was found out. Sounds like a massive pain in the ass."

"You got that right."

They landed shortly after that and they split up, figuring it would be easier to find the man since they had a few of his frequently visited places to cover.

It didn't take her long to find him in the lobby of a hotel.

"Richard Castle? Kate Beckett, I'm with the FBI."

"Okay." He was confused, and a little bit paranoid, but he tried not to let it show.

"You've heard of flight 627?"

"The Hamburg flight, of course."

"You may be able to help us with that."

He gave a small laugh and tried to walk past her. "Oh no, I think you got the wrong guy." But she stepped in his way.

"Your father is Walter Bishop?"

"Last time somebody asked me that, it was an accusation."

"Well he is the man we are looking to speak with, but due to his current status, you are the only one who can provide us access." She was trying to ask nicely, but he was really making it hard.

"What possible help could that man be to you? And what is it exactly you are expecting me to do? Hop on a plane with you back to Massachusetts? I just got here, Honey." She had obviously hit a nerve there, taking about his father.

"I can have you on a return flight here in four days, but first-"

"Let me save you the time, I'd rather stay here in Iraq. That's how much I want to see my father." He turned on his heel and walked away from her but Kate Beckett wasn't through yet.

"I'm going to beg you, as one human being to another." He turned back around to face her as she continued talking. "Your father may be able to save someone who is dieing, someone I care about very much." They stood their staring at each other for a moment. She thought maybe he was at least considering it, but she was wrong.

With a sigh, he started speaking. "Sweetheart, we all care about someone who is dying." Then he walked away from her again. "I can't help you, I'm sorry."

She tried to be nice, but she was running out of options.

"I know why you're here." He turned around quickly, clearly affected by what she said.

"I have your file."

"Ha, what file?" He tried to laugh off how much that had shocked him.

"The file that the FBI would say doesn't exist." He shook his head, and walked closer to her. "And it has everything. I know where you've been, what you are running from, and what you need while you're here." By now they were only a foot away from each other and he was looking around nervously, so she pushed just a little bit harder.

"So either you come with me, or I let certain people know your whereabouts."

Castle looked around a little bit longer before turning back to her with a forced smile on his face, clearly not liking this.

"When do we leave?"

They didn't know it then, but this was the beginning of something huge.


	9. one a day keeps the flu away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexis gets sick at school and Beckett is the only one able to pick her up.

Beckett was just finishing up paperwork on their latest case, and waiting for the boys to get back from their road trip to find a crucial piece of evidence, when her cellphone rang.

"Beckett."

"Is this Kate Beckett?"

"Yes? Who is this?"

"Do you know an Alexis Castle?"

"Of course, is something wrong?"

"I'm the principal at her school, she seems to have come down with a particularly nasty flu virus and the school nurse has decided to send her home, but out of all the emergency contacts that are listed for her, you are the only one we have been able to get a hold of."

Castle had been going on and on all day about how he was worried Alexis was getting sick since she woke up with a cough this morning, but insisted that she was fine enough to go to school, so it wasn't much of a surprise to hear the young girl was sick.

"Her father is out on a small trip and should be back in an hour or so, did you want me to get a hold of him? Or just come pick up Alexis myself?"

"Miss Castle is feeling pretty miserable, but I know about you detective, and I know you must be busy so she is welcome to stay at the nurses office until Mr. Castle can come pick her up."

"It's alright, I'll be there in a few minutes to pick her up."

The principal hung up the phone a few minutes later and Beckett picked up her bag and jacket, calling out to the captain that she was taking off for a little while.

Traffic ended up not being too overly bad, so she made it to the school within half an hour and was soon leading a very sick teenager to her car. Once Alexis was securely in the passenger seat, Beckett headed to Castle's apartment.

"Your dad should be back soon. He was being especially annoying today so I sent him on a little road trip with Esposito and Ryan."

"That's fine. You didn't have to come get me you know." Alexis croaked out, before another coughing fit came on.

"It's okay, I was just doing paperwork anyway." Alexis' throat was obviously bothering her so they stayed silent the rest of the way to the loft. Once they got there, Beckett helped the girl up to the loft, and after using Alexis' keys, ushered the girl inside then straight upstairs to bed. Beckett made her take some medicine, then soon the young girl was out like a light, leaving Beckett to wait for Castle to get back.

She had left him a message on his phone for him to get whenever they got back into an area that had decent reception, but she knew he would panic and come back to the loft right away.

Thirty minutes later, Castle burst through the door, looking around quickly until his eyes feel on Beckett, who had made herself comfortable on the couch.

"Where is she? Is she okay?"

"She's fine, Castle."

It took a few more minutes for her to calm him down, and when he did he was looking at her with a strange tender expression on his face.

"Thank you."

It was just a simple thank you, but she could feel a blush rising on her cheeks, and knew she had to get out of there before one or both of them did something stupid.


	10. one a day is only in your dreams...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett watches as Castle waits for her to show up, not knowing that she is already there.

It was nearing ten o'clock at night when Beckett walked into 'The Old Haunt', where she was meeting up with the rest of the team after doing an undercover job as a favor to a fellow detective.

When she walked in, she immediately spotted Ryan and Esposito chatting with some of the regulars, while Castle was playing bartender. Ignoring the boys for now, she headed up to the bar and ordered a drink. Castle started making her drink right away, without any comment, looking at the door frequently as if he was waiting for someone.

When he handed her her drink, then headed to serve the next customer with barely a word said to her, she realized that he didn't recognize her. Which wasn't surprising, since she had dyed her hair blonde and had it up in a hairstyle that she had never done before for the undercover job earlier, and hadn't had time to change it back yet.

Castle came around and refilled her drink, and she asked him why he kept looking at the door.

"Oh, um... I'm just waiting for someone, she should have been here by now."

She thought about that for a minute, wondering if maybe he had invited Gina along with them tonight, and he took the opportunity to tend to the other customers.

Eventually he came back around a little while later, still glancing at the door every few minutes.

"Is she your girlfriend, or something?"

"Wha? Oh, the one I'm waiting for? Only in my dreams. She's just a really good friend." He said when he finally realized what she was talking about.

He was back to looking at the door, and she decided, or maybe the alcohol decided, to test him a little bit.

He wasn't paying attention to her, so she pulled on her already low-cut shirt, making even more of her cleavage show before leaning forward a bit. She called Castle over to refill her glass again, and his eyes locked onto her chest, but he quickly looked away and at the door again. Deciding to push it just a bit farther, she let her fingers trail across the back of his hand when he handed the glass back to her, but he only gave her a polite smile and backed away.

"Yo, Castle! You seen Beckett yet?" Esposito yelled from across the room, and Castle replied with no little amount of concern in his voice.

"No, you don't think something happened, do you? She really should have been here by now."

There was a part of her that had realized, in the very back of her mind, that he was waiting for her to show up, but it didn't really hit home until then. He was ignoring a very attractive, if she did say so herself, blonde's advances because he was waiting for her to get there. She really wasn't ready to think about what that meant, so she decided it was time to make him realize she was there.

Beckett took her phone out of her bag and hit number two on speed dial. It only took a few seconds for her to be able to hear Castle's phone ringing in his pocket, even though he was quite a few feet from her.

He pulled it out quickly, and answered just as fast when he saw her name on his screen.

"Beckett? Are you okay? You were supposed to be here by now."

"I'm fine, Castle."

"Then why aren't you here?"

"What makes you think I'm not already there?" She couldn't resist having a little fun with him.

"Because I think I would notice if you were."

"Oh really? Because you've been glancing at the door every few minutes?"

"Wha? How did you-"

"Besides the fact that you just told me?" He didn't know it, but she had gotten up from her spot and slipped behind the bar while they were talking, and now she was right behind him.

"Because I am here." She leaned forward and whispered in his ear, causing him let out a girly shriek and jump away from her.

"Beckett!" He looked at the blonde female in front of him in confusion for a few seconds before his mind started piecing together some of the similarities, finally realizing she had been there the whole time.

"Wow, you look so different with your hair like that."

"Yeah, well, don't get used to it. I'm changing it back tonight."

His little show had drawn the attention of the boys, causing them to start teasing/commenting on her blonde hair as well.

It wasn't until later that she had a chance to talk to Castle again.

"So..." She trailed off, but it was enough to get his attention.

"Only in your dreams, huh?"


	11. one a day doesn't keep things from changing...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things weren't supposed to change after she got married, but apparently Ryan and Esposito didn't get the memo.

It was her first day back on the job after taking a week off for her wedding, and honeymoon, and she was already regretting marrying him.

The bad thing is, is that it wasn't even her husband that was making her regret her choice, it was her so-called 'team'. They were having a little bit too much fun with this.

"Hey Castle? I need you to sign off on this."

"Wanna go get some drinks after work with us, Castle?"

All day long it was like that, one thing after another. It was always "Castle this" and "Castle that".

But, she was doing good. She desperately wanted to shut them up, one way or another, but she kept her cool.

Until a detective from another precinct, that she had never met before, came by to give her some info on a case she had reopened.

"Are you Detective Castle?"

Kate Beckett-Castle let her head fall onto her desk with a loud thump, and a groan.

This was not supposed to happen, she was supposed to stay as 'Beckett', but apparently Ryan and Esposito didn't care.

Oh well, She thought, we'll see if they change their minds when they are stuck on desk duty for a few weeks.


	12. one a day doesn't keep the morning away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate Beckett is NOT a morning person.

Kate Beckett stumbled sleepily into her kitchen early one morning, nearly having a heart attack when her brain registered a man standing at the stove, apparently cooking breakfast.

"Castle?" She asked, with no small amount of confusion and shock.

Castle just raised an eyebrow at her, then turned back to the eggs he was cooking, waiting for her to wake up more.

The strong aroma of coffee drifted over to her, and she decided that's exactly what she needed right now so she pulled out a cup and poured herself some coffee from the pot that Castle had apparently already put on.

She took a seat at the table and after a few sips of the life-giving coffee, the caffeine finally hit her brain, causing her confusion to melt away.

Castle had been watching her as she got her coffee and fully woke up, waiting until then to speak.

"Morning, Beckett."

He slid a plate of eggs, bacon, and toast in front of her, and she accepted gratefully.

"Morning. You don't have to fix breakfast every morning, you know."

He fixed a plate for himself and slid into the seat across from her. "I know, but I want to. It's the only way you will let me show my thanks for you letting us stay here until we are sure that 'thing' is completely dead and gone."

"Yeah well, wouldn't want 'it' to get you in your sleep." She chuckled as he shuddered, thinking about the strange mutant rat 'thing' he had found in the loft a few days ago, causing the Castle clan to be out of a home while the place was fumigated to kill whatever 'it' was.

They ate in silence for a few minutes, before Castle brought up something that had been on his mind for a while.

"I always knew you liked your coffee, even during that first case we had together, but I never knew it was so essential to your daily life. We've been here three days now, and you're still confused every time you walk into the kitchen. Kate Beckett isn't a morning person, who would have thought?"

"Shut up." She replied, then added as an after thought when he got up to put his plate in the sink. "And pour me some more coffee, I'm going to need it."


	13. one a day doesn't keep college away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexis is moving out of the loft and into a dorm, but she's going to need some help getting her father to leave.

When Kate Beckett answered the phone that evening, she wasn't surprised to find the younger Castle on the other end.

"Hey Alexis, how did the move into your new dorm go?" Beckett asked when she answered the phone.

"The moving part went great, though dad kept going as slow as possible to prolong it, so he wouldn't have to say goodbye. He seemed to be taking it pretty well though."

"That's great. I thought you were calling to ask me to come drag him away, but I guess he really has grown up these last few years."

"Uh, actually..."

With a sigh, and a roll of her eyes, Beckett gathered up her keys and jacket, heading out to her car.

"Sigh, I should have known. I'll get him out of your hair."

"Thanks so much, Kate. I don't know what I would do without you to keep him in line while I'm at college."

"You're welcome. So where is he?"

"He said he was taking a taxi home, but he didn't realize I can see a majority of the parking lot from my window. He paid off the cab and hid in the trunk of my car. What does he expect to accomplish by that?"

"There is no telling, I'll be there as soon as I can."

"You might want to bring Detective Ryan and Detective Esposito too. I think you are going to need all the help you can get."

"Good idea."


	14. one a day keeps the twinkies away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kate Beckett was in a horrible mood today, and Castle was pretty sure he had something to do with it, only he had no idea what he did.

Kate Beckett was in a horrible mood today, and Castle was pretty sure he had something to do with it, only he had no idea what he did.

According to Esposito, she had been biting everyone's head off ever since she got there early this morning, and hadn't stopped yet.

Even when he had given her her coffee, she had acted like she didn't want to take it, but finally gave in and drank it. She thought she was being sneaky by only glaring at him when she thought he couldn't see her, but she was wrong. He was painfully aware of every glare she sent his way.

Around noon he had finally given in and asked what he did wrong, but she 'politely' told him that nothing was wrong, and to go find someone else to annoy.

By dinner time, she couldn't take anymore, and left earlier than normal.

"Don't you have anything better to do, Castle?" Ryan asked the writer who was busy snooping through the stuff on Esposito's desk.

"Yeah bro, usually you don't stick around much after Beckett leaves." Esposito slapped his hand away when Castle got too close to his emergency candy stash.

"I don't want to go home yet." The two detectives raised their eyebrows at that.

"Family troubles?"

"Sort of. The deep-fried twinkie is in town, and more than likely at the loft right now."

"And that's a bad thing?"

Castle looked at Ryan like he had grown a second head.

"Uh yeah, that's a bad thing! She's insane!"

"Dude... Last time she was in town you were all over her. What happened to 'sex with crazy people is amazing'?"

"Um well... I've moved past that stage. Now it's more like 'she's crazy and I want her to stay as far away as possible'."

The two detectives shared a knowing look before turning back to their separate desks and doing what they are paid to do, leaving Castle with nothing to do.

An hour later, Castle was standing outside Beckett's apartment door, giant bouquet of flowers in hand. He still had no idea what he had done to make her so mad, but he wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it unless he at least tried to make amends.

"Castle? What are you doing here?" She answered the door angrily when he rang the doorbell, causing him to think that maybe he should have just given her time to cool down before trying to apologize for whatever he had done wrong. But it was too late now.

"I uh, for you." He said, thrusting the flowers out in front of him. "I don't know what I did, but whatever it is that has you upset is obviously my fault, so whatever it is, I'm sorry."

She stared at the flowers for a minute before pushing them back towards him with a sigh. "Just keep them, Castle." Beckett tried to shut the door, but he quickly put his foot in the way and blocked it.

"Now you are really starting to worry me, Kate. What's wrong?"

She closed her eyes when he used her first name, but opened them just a few seconds later to glare at him. "No, just go. Go back to your twinkie of an ex-wife and leave me alone. I don't want to deal with you right now, not when you've been with her."

"What? How did you know Meredith was back in town."

"Alexis told me."

"Alexis told you?"

"Yes, we talk. Okay? Goodbye." She kicked his foot rather harshly so he would remove it then tried to shut the door on him, again.

Castle was completely confused, but he knew he'd never get any answers if she shut the door on him so he quickly reached out, with the hand that wasn't holding the flowers, and tried to stop her from shutting the door.

With turned out to be a rather stupid idea on his part, since she was very determined to shut the door this time, and was nearly putting all the force she could on the door.

There was no crunch, or crack, but the yelp Castle let out when the door slammed on his hand was enough for her to feel guilty.

"What the hell? You idiot!" She quickly grabbed his hand and inspected it, nothing seemed to be broken but he was definitely going to have a bruise tomorrow. Feeling really guilty now, she ushered him inside the apartment and had him sit on the couch while she got an ace bandage to wrap up his hand, and some ice in case it started swelling.

Beckett stood in front of him and held out her hand, she wanted to bandage his hand, but he handed her the flowers, with a huge grin on his face, instead. Rolling her eyes, she took the flowers and placed them in a vase before turning back to him and taking his injured hand.

She gently wrapped his hand up tight, and he took the opportunity to speak.

"What did you mean by that?"

"By what?"

"What you said, about Meredith." At the mention of the twinkie's name, she pulled a little too hard on the wrapping, causing him to let out an undignified squeak.

"Nothing."

They fell into silence once more, until it finally clicked in his head. She thought that he and Meredith were...

If she hadn't been right there in front of him, he would have started laughing uncontrollably.

"Let's just say I've gotten over my deep-fried twinkie cravings. She's only in town to spend time with Alexis." Castle said, trying to keep a straight face.

"Somehow I find that hard to believe."

"It's true, my tastes have changed over these last few years."

She should have just let the subject go, so that she could finish his hand and send him on his way, but before she knew it, her mouth was moving and the words were spilling out.

"And what are your 'tastes' now?"

He didn't even hesitate before answering. "Real. My tastes are more real now."

"Didn't know you did real." She finished bandaging his hand up then stepped back.

"You might be surprised. I can't even stand her anymore, which is why I've been hiding at the precinct most of the day, but I'm running out of excuses to stay away."

She was completely, and totally, ignoring how happy that made her feel, to know that's how he felt about the twinkie, and once again her mouth started moving of it's own accord.

"Wanna grab some dinner?"

"Sure! Anything so I don't have to go home yet."


	15. one a day keeps the goombas away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle invites the team over for a little New Super Mario Bros Wii fun.

"Castle, you idiot! You almost got me killed!"

"Sorry, sorry!"

"Dude, stop bouncing on my head!"

"Don't have such a bouncy head then!"

"You have the same ridiculously bouncy head, I should jump on yours."

"Nooo, Ryan! You killed me!"

"Wait... Let's not do anything rash... Ah, don't!" Ryan screamed as Esposito's character picked up his and promptly threw him into the nearest bottomless pit, effectively getting revenge.

"Castle, don't you dare..." Beckett warned the writer whose character was riding on a yoshi, and getting entirely too close to her yoshiless character for comfort. And sure enough, he did exactly what she didn't want him to do.

"Spit me out right now, Castle, or I swear to god I will..." He wasn't paying any attention to her so she took matters into her own hands, quickly reaching over and pushing buttons on Castle's wii remote, causing his yoshi to spit her character out. Right into a goomba.

"Haha! That was completely your own fault, Beckett!" Castle said as Beckett furiously started shaking the wii remote to revive her character.

She was cursing the creator of this game for allowing the characters to sabotage each other, until they came to the end of the level and she was able to jump on all three of their heads and land on the very top of the flag pole, killing Castle's character in the process.

Maybe this game isn't so bad after all. She thought, as Castle started vowing to get revenge for his wrongful death in the next level.

It was chaotic having four people play at once, but it was definitely fun. Even if Castle did get his revenge in the next level by letting her character get eaten by a giant fish.


	16. one a day helps get into shape...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle decides it's time to get into shape, and asks a certain detective to help.

Castle moaned and groaned as he slowly dragged his exhausted and sore body into the loft, promptly collapsing on the couch. It had been a week since he had had this brilliant idea of his, and his muscles were still letting him know how much they absolutely despised this idea.

It all started when he and the team were trying to capture a murderer a week ago, they had burst into the apartment, and quickly found out that the person they were looking for wasn't there. As usual, Castle ignored Beckett's orders, and strayed away from her to go check out something that had caught his eye down the hall way. When he reached the end, he noticed the emergency exit door was slightly ajar, and quickly pushed it open only to see the murderer running away in the alley below.

Castle yelled that he had found them, but he knew the criminal would get away before they got out there so he did the only thing he could think to do, he chased after him.

A few minutes later, a very out of breathe Castle had the man cornered in a dead end. The man pulled out a gun, but Castle was expecting it and quickly hit him with a nearby garbage bag, making him drop the gun which Castle kicked under the dumpster.

By this time, Castle was imagining a scenario where he would quickly take down the murderer before the rest of the team even got in the alley, making him look like a macho super hero.

But, the murderer had about thirty pounds of muscle more than Castle and needless to say, when Beckett finally reached the alley, Castle was getting his butt kicked. He would definitely have plenty of bruises to show off in the morning, which he would have been fine with. He was a master of storytelling, he would definitely come up with a story that would have him sounding extremely brave and manly, saying how he held his own against a man that was much stronger and bigger than him.

If only Beckett, being only nearly half the size of the murderer, hadn't came and took the man out in two seconds flat. That's what hurt his manly pride the most, and that was what gave him his oh so brilliant idea that he was really, really regretting right now.

"Train me." He had said to her after that case was over. "I am now painfully aware at how out of shape I am compared to you guys, so I want you to help me get back into shape, and teach me how to fight like you do."

He had expected her to flat out tell him 'no', maybe try to evade the question, or tell him to have one of the boys to it, but she surprised him with her answer.

"Sure, be here at five in the morning and we can get started." She had turned away from him to go tell the Captain that the case was officially closed, so Castle didn't see the devilish grin on her face.

And now he had been meeting her every morning, for a week, at five am for their torture, er training, sessions, and he wasn't sure how much more he was going to be able to take. In his opinion, Beckett was having way to much fun dictating which exercises he should do every morning and was pushing him so hard so that he would have no choice but to give up on this idea of his.

But no matter how much he regretted ever getting himself into this mess, he was not going to back down and give up. He wanted to show her that he could, and would, have her back during a take down, like a real partner should. She shouldn't have to be the man power in their working relationship, so if that meant he wouldn't be able to move after their training sessions for the rest of his life, then so be it.

Castle's phone chimed its text message tone from inside his pocket, and with a huge grunt, he moved his very sore arm to reach into his pocket and pull out his phone, seeing that he had a text from the devil trainer herself.

"I have something to do in the morning, so we'll need to get an earlier start on your training in the morning, but that won't be a problem will it? See you at four-thirty! KB"

It was official, she was definitely trying to kill him. And at this rate, it wouldn't take long.


	17. one a day keeps Castle from sulking...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Castle's birthday, but his friends don't seem to know that.

Today was Richard Castle's birthday, and he was sulking like a five year old.

He knew he was being childish but he couldn't help it, it was his birthday, but no one save for his mother and daughter seemed to remember it. And they only had a small celebration for him this morning before Martha went off to one of her auditions, and Alexis went off on a date with Ashley.

And to top it all off, Beckett had been talking to Josh on the phone nearly all day. It seemed like every time he wanted to tell her something, she was on the phone with him, and would quickly hang up when he got near.

By the time the team's shift was over, Castle was ready to drown his sorrows with a few drinks at the Old Haunt, and he was going to see if Beckett and the boys wanted to go with him, only to find out they had apparently already left.

Sulking and irritated, though he really shouldn't be, he left the precinct and headed straight to the bar. Not paying much attention to anything, he got the shock of his life when he walked into the bar and what sounded like gun shots went off.

He may not have any police training, but he had learned some survival instincts in the years he had been shadowing Beckett, so at the sound of the 'gunshots' he quickly hit the ground and did a sort of ninja roll to duck behind the nearest booth, peeking his head out to see who the 'shooter' was.

What he saw as his friends and family in hysterics over his reaction to their confetti poppers.

"Dude, you should have seen your face!" Esposito laughed, pointing at the embarrassed writer who was coming out from his hiding place.

He just stared at them once he got to his feet, and it was the Captain who finally spoke up.

"You didn't really think that we had forgotten your birthday, did you Castle?"

"Uh, well..."

"See, Gram? I told you we could actually surprise him if we got Detective Beckett to help." Alexis told Martha while smirking slightly, extremely proud to have finally surprised her father on his birthday for once.

"Wait... You were in on this, Beckett?" Castle asked Beckett, who was grinning happily.

"Guilty. I couldn't pass up the chance to pull one over on you."

"But how? You've been on the phone with doctor-boy all day."

"Have I?" She asked 'innocently' and he realized that she had played him easily, making him think she was talking to Josh when apparently she had actually been scheming with Alexis.

As his friends and family pulled him farther into the bar, he couldn't help but think that this year's birthday wasn't so bad after all, despite it's rough start.


	18. one a day should keep Beckett away from sports cars...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett always drives. No exceptions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written when we only had the promo for Lucky Stiff.

"You know there is only one way we are going to catch this guy, don't you? We have to go to that club."

"Yeah sure, Castle. We'll just walk right in and flash our badges in a high class VIP club, it's not like that will cause him to turn tail and run before we even get in the door."

"That's not what I meant, I meant going undercover as normal club goers."

Beckett wanted to shoot down the idea on the spot, but before she could say anything, the Captain spoke up.

"I think that is a good idea, Castle. I trust you can get into the club?"

"Piece of cake."

"Alright, Beckett, I want you and Castle inside the club, Ryan, Esposito, you two are backup. Let's get this scumbag."

Poor Beckett didn't even get a say in the matter as the Captain had already retreated back to his office, most likely knowing she wouldn't like this idea.

"Come on, Beckett. It'll be fun!"

"You just want to do undercover work." She said with a roll of her eyes.

"Duh."

"Fine, pick you up at ten?" Beckett got up from her desk and headed towards the elevator, intending to head home and get ready for tonight.

"Oh no, detective. In that ratty old car of yours? They might not even let us anywhere near the club. High-class remember? We can take my Ferrari." She was about to argue with him, but decided not to at the last minute. Instead, she told him she would meet him at his place and they would go to the club from there.

A couple hours later, Beckett showed up at his apartment looking completely stunning, and after Castle picked his jaw up off the floor, they headed downstairs to the apartment's car garage. Castle pulled out the keys to unlock the car when she suddenly took the keys from him, jumping into the drivers seat of the car with a wicked grin.

"But...But..."

"I always drive. Remember, Castle?"

"But! But it's my car!"

"Get in, or I'm leaving without you." She started the car, grinning as it started up perfectly, while Castle quickly went around to the other side of the car and quickly got in, not wanting to take a chance that she was actually serious about leaving without him.

As soon as his seat belt clicked into place, Beckett hit the gas and zoomed out of the driveway, never slowing down much at all, causing Castle to cling to the side of the car for dear life until they finally made it to the club, coming to a halt in front of it.

"Wow, nice car."


	19. one a day keeps the CDC away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Esposito is having too much fun teasing Castle and Beckett about being forced into a decontamination shower together.

"Say one word, Castle, and I swear to god I will kill you where you stand." Seeing the fury in the female detective's eyes, Castle quickly mimed zipping his mouth shut and throwing away the key, but continued following after her as they walked through the precinct.

By the time they made it up to the homicide floor, Beckett had calmed down enough to where she wasn't considering killing the FBI agent, just maiming him a little, but the urge came right back when Ryan and Esposito grinned at her and Castle.

"Yo Ryan, that doesn't look like the same clothes they left in."

"Definitely not the same clothes. Wanna tell us what happened while you two were gone, Beckett?" Ryan's question was answered with a glare that nearly made him cower behind Esposito, but he held his ground, barely.

Esposito knew he was playing with fire, but this was too good to pass up so he kept on.

"So what was it like being forced into a decontamination shower together? Any peeking going on?"

There was an audible snap as the pen Beckett had been holding broke into two and Ryan dove behind the nearest desk, leaving Esposito to fend for himself against the wrath of Beckett.

Castle slowly headed over to his chair and sat down, wanting to get as far away from the angry detective as possible because if she knew that the sight of her naked body, that he had got a glimpse of earlier, was permanently burned in his mind, she would surely kill him.


	20. one a day keeps the big hairy spiders away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after Castle got the spider on him in "The Third Man"?

"What about a big, hairy, spider on your shoulder?"

"Yeah, that would do it."

Beckett just smiled at him and pointed at the large spider that was currently climbing up his shoulder and turned his head away from it, grimacing.

"Get it off, get it off!" Castle reached up and was about to knock it off his shoulder, but decided he really didn't want to touch it.

"Beckett!" He whined, beyond caring that he sounded like a little girl. "Kill it!"

"It's just a spider, Castle."

The spider continued it's merry way until one of its hairy legs touched the bare skin of Castle's neck making him squeal and making Beckett finally feel sorry for him.

"Get it off!" She calmly walked over and scooped the spider up with her hand and placed it in a nearby container.

"Oh thank god."

"Come on, Castle, let's go before the rest of the spiders that were in that cage find you."

"There were more!" He was out of the room before she even turned around to head out the door.


	21. one a day keeps the evil side away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle calls Beckett when he fears that he is losing Alexis.

"Castle, it's late. What do you want?" Beckett said when she picked up her ringing phone and noticed the caller ID said it was Castle who was calling her.

"I think I'm losing Alexis."

"What now?"

"I think I'm losing her, we never see each other anymore, and we hardly talk either. She's been spending an awful lot of time at Paige's house lately, but tonight I tried to call her to let her know what Gina and I wanted her to go with us to breakfast at that new placed that opened up tomorrow, but she wouldn't answer. So I called Paige's parents but they said that she wasn't there, and hadn't been over there in weeks. You were a teenage girl once, what's going on? And please, tell me the truth. Even if it means she's been spending these nights with Ashley."

"I don't think you are ready for the truth, Castle." She sighed, knowing she had promised the girl that she wouldn't get involved in this.

"Please, Beckett. I need to know. I want my little girl back, but I don't even know what to do right now."

"You really don't know what's going on?"

"If I did, I wouldn't be calling you."

"You're right, you are losing her. She hasn't been home much because she feels like she is a stranger in her own house."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well from what I've heard, your ex-wife is all miss perfect when you are around her, but when she's alone with Alexis, she turns into a total bitch."

"...I know you don't like her, but that's going a little too far, don't you think?"

"Hey, those were Alexis' words, not mine."

"You're lying. I would have noticed if Gina was being mean to her."

"Would you really? Just think about it, will you? And when you finally break the spell she has on you that keeps you from seeing her evil side, Alexis will be waiting for you. I'm sure she is getting tired of sleeping on the pull-out bed in my living room." Then she disconnected the call, to let him think about what she said, and went to back sleep.

The next morning, Gina was sent packing and all was right with the world again.


	22. one a day keeps the snowball guns away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for the annual snowball fight, and Castle has a secret weapon.

"Okay, we have thirty minutes to build barricades, and then five after that to make snowballs. Ready? Go!" Beckett said and everyone headed towards their team's side of the field and quickly started pushing snow together to make a barricade.

It was time for her team's annual snowball fight, but this year it was going to be a little more fun, seeing as Castle and Alexis were joining them this year. They were split into two teams: Castle, Ryan, and Esposito made up one, while Beckett, Lanie, and Alexis made up the other.

They worked together in their teams and by the time the thirty minutes was up, each team had a very impressive barricade.

"Alright, five minutes!" Beckett yelled and each team started piling snowballs behind their barricades, getting ready for what was surely going to be an epic snow battle.

All too soon, the five minutes were up and the battle began.

Snow was flying everywhere as each team tried to get the most snow on the other team and it looked like the girls were winning, until Beckett started hearing a strange, machine like sound.

"What the?"

"Detective Beckett! Look out!" Despite Alexis' warning, Beckett didn't have time to get out of the way before she was being pelted with rapid-fire snowballs.

When the barrage of snow finally stopped Beckett looked up to see Castle cheerfully holding what looked like a top of the line snowball gun.

Oh he was going to pay for that, as soon as she got that stupid gun away from him so he would stop shooting her.


	23. one a day doesn't keep the Super Bowl away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Super Bowl time! The guys veg out in front of the TV watching the game while the girls have some fun on their own.

"Oh come on! Seriously? Where was he even throwing? There wasn't anyone there!"

"Dude, did you see that?"

The collective groan the group of males let out could be heard all the way upstairs, even though the doors were closed.

"I can't take this anymore." Martha said as she dramatically threw the book she was attempting to read on the bed, and headed across the hall into Alexis' room, finding the young girl with headphones securely in her ears.

Martha walked over and stood in Alexis' line of sight, getting the young girl's attention quickly.

"Grams? What's up?"

"I can't take it anymore! Your father and those detectives are making a racket downstairs and I'm afraid that if I heard one more mention of the Super Bowl, I'm going to start shooting someone. Please come with me so we can escape from here?"

"Sure, where are we going?"

"I don't know, just somewhere far away from here. The testosterone in the air is nearly killing me."

Alexis thought about it for a minute before a smile spread across her face and she pulled out her phone and started typing a text message. "I might know somewhere we can go, but let me check."

Five minutes later the two women were making their way downstairs, trying not to gasp at the chaos that used to be their living room. Empty soda and beer bottles were lying around everywhere, along with various empty snack packages.

"Dad, you are going to clean this up right?"

As if they were one, all the guys who were sitting in front of the large screen TV on the couch turned around and shushed the poor girl before turning back to their game.

"Okay then..."

"Come on dear, let's leave before whatever is clearly affecting their brains, affects us too." Martha said as she guided Alexis out of the loft, very eager to let the boys have their fun as long as she wasn't around to hear it.

"I'm a Super Bowl widow!"

"You aren't even married, Lanie."

"It doesn't matter, it's just an expression. A very true one at that. I've been dumped for a football game." The short M.E. said, waving around the knife she was using to cut up some vegetables for the Italian dish that Beckett was making for dinner that night.

"It's just one day, surely you can stand to be away from him for that long. Hurry up with those, will you?"

"I...Don't know how to answer that. That's a bad sign isn't it?" Lanie said, handing over the now chopped vegetables to Beckett, who quickly dropped them in the dish she was putting together.

"That's so sweet!"

"Watch it girl, I'm not the one who mopes around the precinct whenever a certain writer boy can't make it in that day."

"I do not!"

"Oh you so do."

"I-" Beckett was cut off when the doorbell rang, and with one last glare at Lanie, she went to open it.

"You are a life saver, dear." Martha said gratefully when Beckett opened the door and let them in.

"No problem, I haven't gotten the dish in the oven yet because Lanie hasn't been very helpful-" Lanie interrupted from the kitchen with an indignant 'hey!'. "-so it will still be a little while before it's done, then we can start our chick-flick movie marathon."

"Sound great. Anything we can help with?"

"Yeah, you can take over chopping the vegetables before Lanie ends up killing someone with that knife." And so the females settled in for an evening of fun, leaving the boys to their super-bowl game, and the mess they had created while watching it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no knowledge of football so I hope there wasn't anything weird in this one.


	24. one a day vacations in Hawaii...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett invites Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, and Jenny down to her family's beach house in Hawaii while Castle is away on a sumer long book tour. What she doesn't know is that Castle is staying a week in Hawaii, the same week they are. Or does she?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because Beckett could totally have a family beach house in Hawaii... I wrote this when I was under an unexpected two feet of snow and was desperate for something that was the complete opposite of snow and well, this happened.
> 
> I've never been to Hawaii so I'm sure facts are all messed up in here, in fact some people have said that it sounds more like Bora Bora but I've never been there either (or anywhere tropical for that matter so...)

Kate Beckett lounged lazily in her hammock on the deck of the beach house that her family was lucky enough to own for generations. The house itself was set on one of the many small islands a short distance away from the mainland, and was connected to the main land, and other surrounding houses, by various wooden walkways over the shallower parts of the ocean.

The sound of the small waves heading under the deck was a peaceful sound, nearly lulling the vacationing detective into sleep as she basked in the plentiful rays of sunlight, and the gentle breeze that kept it from being too hot. Until her phone started ringing, startling her and nearly making her topple from the hammock into the three feet of water below, but she caught herself just in time.

"Beckett?"

"Girl, you're on vacation and you still answer your phone like that?"

"Lanie? Why are you calling me? You're supposed to be on a plane right now."

"Do you even know what time it is?"

Beckett didn't even bother looking at the clock on her phone, opting to estimate the time instead. "Like around three?"

"It's five and we've already landed. Get your little ass over here and pick us up, the locals are looking at us funny and it's creeping me out."

Apparently she had fallen asleep for a little bit because the last time she had looked at the clock, it was only almost two-thirty. "Right, be right there."

She hung up on Lanie and quickly climbed her way out of the hammock, stuck her head through the open doorway of the beach house to grab the keys, then took off at a run down the series of wooden walkways to get to the mainland where the SUV she had borrowed was. She was just passing the house closest to her when someone called her name in shock.

"Beckett?"

"Hi Castle, bye Castle." She gave him a wave and continued on her way, knowing that if she didn't get to the airport to pick up Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, and Jenny soon Lanie might kill her for being later than she already was.

"Dad? Oh, I thought I heard you talking to someone out here." Alexis said as she came out of the beach house behind Castle, watching as her father just stood their staring at the place he had seen the detective.

"Dad? Hey, dad... Anyone alive in there?" She said gently tapping his head to get his attention.

"Huh? Oh sorry pumpkin..."

"What's up?"

"I'm not really sure, but I think I just saw Beckett run by..."

"Really dad? We've only been on this book tour for a few weeks now and you are already missing her that much? Come on, we only got here last night, let's go explore! It'll help take your mind off Detective Beckett."

"Right... Where to first?"

After a through lecture on the importance of not being late to pick up your friends when you invite them on vacation with you, Beckett and the rest of the group were in the car and headed back to the beach house.

"You know, an SUV isn't what I really pictured when you think of Hawaiian transportation." Esposito said from his position in the back of the van with Ryan and Jenny, since the last row of seats were full with the luggage they had brought.

"Yeah well, I knew you guys would haul way too much stuff down here, it wouldn't have all fit in the jeep I usually use while I'm here."

"While you're here? I don't mean to pry, Detective, but does that mean you come here often? And thank you for inviting me, by the way." Jenny spoke up, curious about the female detective she had heard so much about from Ryan.

"My great grandpa bought some land here a long time ago and it's been in the family ever since. My mom, my dad, and I used to come here every summer, even when I was in college, but his is the first year I've been here in a while though. And you're welcome, but please, call me Kate. There's no need to call me detective while we are on vacation."

"Says the person who still answers the phone like she's on call." Lanie didn't even give her a chance to reply to that before she started talking again. "So? Found Writer Boy yet? And don't even try to deny it, we know you decided on this whole vacation thing only after you found out he was going to be here for ten days while on this all summer long book tour of his."

Beckett glanced into the rear view mirror to see that Ryan and Esposito were both giving her knowing looks.

"As a matter of fact, I did."

"And? Was he shocked you were here?"

"I don't know."

"You, don't know?" Lanie gave her a look that clearly said she wasn't buying it.

"Yup, I kinda passed him on the way to pick up you guys."

"So you didn't even talk to him?"

"I said 'hi."

"Oh lord, I have my work cut out for me." Beckett didn't have time to question what Lanie meant by that because they were pulling up at the parking space and it was time to get out of the car and inform the group that they had to carry their luggage all the way to the beach house.


	25. one a day doesn't keep Esplanie's revenge away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Esposito talks to Lanie after finding out that the rest of the team knows about the two of them being together.

"Yo Chica! We have a small problem." Esposito said as he pushed open the double doors that lead into the morgue, finding his M.E. girlfriend running some kind of test for a different team's case.

"What is it, Javi?"

"They know."

"What?"

"They know! Ryan knows, and said that Castle and Beckett do too!"

"Seriously?" Lanie stopped the test and turned to give her full attention to her boyfriend. "How do you know?"

Esposito shrugged. "I don't know, Ryan and I were on a stakeout and it kinda just came up."

Lanie walked over and wrapped her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. "What do they think? About us?"

"They are happy for us."

"That's great!"

"Yeah, but they still kept quiet about knowing and let us continue sneaking around, I think that calls for a little bit of revenge, don't you Chica?"

Their friends were definitely happy for them, but when they find out what the two of them had planned, they might change their minds.


	26. one a day vacations in Hawaii... Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett invites Lanie, Esposito, Ryan, and Jenny down to her family's beach house in Hawaii while Castle is away on a sumer long book tour. What she doesn't know is that Castle is staying a week in Hawaii, the same week they are. Or does she? Part 2.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember, still a completely made up Hawaii.

The group finally got all the luggage into the beach house, and though Beckett had expected to see Castle on the way to the house, they made it inside without catching sight of the writer.

Once they were all inside, everyone collapsed into the nearest chair/couch they could find, complaining about the long walk from the car to the house, except Beckett.

"Maybe if you hadn't brought so much stuff it wouldn't have been such a long walk."

"It wouldn't have been such a long walk if you didn't have to have the furthest beach house. Not all of us can run around like super woman in four plus inch heels." Lanie complained, rubbing her feet and wishing she had worn more comfortable shoes before looking down at Beckett's feet. "You're wearing flip-flops! We've known each other for how long now? I've never seen you in flip-flops."

"Yeah well, things are different here. I'm only wearing them because I had to drive, usually I just go barefoot." She looked around and noticed that every one looked a little less tired than they did and suggested she show them the upstairs so they could pick their rooms and get unpacked.

Great grandpa Beckett had built this house by himself, and with the hope that there would be lots of people using it, he made it big. The ground floor was mostly a large open area where the living room and dining room took up most of the space, with the exceptions being the kitchen, that was separated from the dining room by only a counter, a large bathroom,, and a small office type room that had a door and could be completely separated from the rest of the rooms. A lot of the ground floor had been remodeled over the years as technology grew, but the upstairs was mostly the same, with the exception of bathrooms being added. The upstairs consisted of nine bedrooms, four on each side of a long hallway in the middle and one at the end which was the master bedroom. Bathrooms were built connecting the bedrooms in pairs, while the master bedroom had it's own bathroom, resulting in there being a grand total of five bathrooms on the top floor.

It didn't take long for Ryan and Jenny, who opted to share a room, to pick one they wanted though it took Lanie and Esposito a little bit longer since they obviously wanted to just share a room, but wanted their relationship to remain a 'secret'. Eventually they picked the two rooms farthest from Beckett, Ryan, and Jenny so that they could 'unknowingly' sneak into the other's room without being seen.

"So, what do you guys want to do first?" Beckett asked once they were all back downstairs, and received a loud collective groan in reply.

"Come on, Beckett, even though you've been here for a few days already, some of us still had to work. Ryan, Lanie, and I all had to pull a night shift then get on the plane as soon as it ended." Esposito replied with Lanie and Ryan agreeing with him.

"Alright, alright fine. Rest up today though, because tomorrow you are getting out and exploring the place even if I have to kick you out and lock the doors." They agreed to that, excited about the chance to explore Hawaii, but not wanting to do it now.

"Will you at least get out for dinner later?"

"Maybe, but it doesn't look very promising." Lanie said, already heading upstairs to relax for a while.

"I better go pick up some things from the store then, enjoy your evening of relaxing." Beckett grabbed the keys for her jeep and headed out the door, letting her friends recuperate from their plane ride.

Castle and Alexis were cruising down the main road, in the jeep they were renting, when another jeep sped past them at a breakneck speed, taking every curve in the very curvy road easily, but that wasn't what left Castle with his mouth agape.

"Did you see that? That was Beckett!"

"Dad..."

"I swear it was!"

"Dad, we're in Hawaii, and as much as you apparently want her to be, Detective Beckett isn't here."

"But..."

Deciding to just let it go before his daughter started thinking about calling a mental hospital, Castle sped up a little bit and continued their journey to the only grocery store in a twenty mile radius.


	27. one a day means the blackhole is here to stay...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crack!Fic The mystery of Beckett's closet is solved when Castle gets curious as to how Beckett has room in her closet for all the clothes she apparently has. (Alexander!Fic)

"Castle? What are you doing here?" Beckett asked when she opened her front door one afternoon to find Castle on the other side, getting ready to knock again.

"I'm here to solve a mystery."

"And what mystery is that?" He didn't answer and instead just pushed his way past her and into her apartment.

"The mystery of your closet!"

"The what now?"

"Your closet. I saw it when you were in the bathroom one time and there is no way that little thing could possibly hold all of the clothes you apparently have."

"You snooped around in my closet?"

"No, no!"

"Good."

"That's what I'm going to do today." He took off at a run towards the closet, not waiting to see what she would to do try to stop him. By the time she had processed what he said, he was already standing in front of the open closet with a confused look on his face.

"There's nothing in here! You must be hiding it all somewhere else, but where?"

"Really? Nothing at all? Close the door and then reopen it." He was confused, but he obeyed anyway, quickly shutting the door and opening it to find a single shirt on a hanger in the middle of the closet.

He closed and reopened the door again, this time finding a pair of ridiculously high heels. Opening it again revealed a pair of pants.

"There is a time-space continuum in your closet! This is so cool!" He continued playing with the closet, revealing increasingly random things- a snowboard, a scarf, a lost sock he could have sworn was his, a living dog that according to Beckett had went missing years ago, a bowling ball- until he finally he revealed the most random thing of all.

"Josh!" Castle heard Beckett call from behind him as the doctor was revealed.

"Kate! Oh thank god! I've been stuck in there for weeks!"

"I thought he was supposed to be in Africa?" A confused Castle said as Josh took a step forward, obviously intending to go towards Beckett. Only he didn't quite make it.

Castle 'accidentally' shut the closet door before Josh could get out. The detective and writer listened as a scream came from the closet, sounding as if it was getting farther and farther away until it was gone completely.

"Castle! He was supposed to be in Africa but my closet swallowed him up instead!"

"Oops?" Castle said, trying to attempt to be sorry for what he had done, but finding it very, very hard. "How about I take you out to dinner, to show how sorry I am for getting your boyfriend stuck in a space-time continuum?"

"Ugh, fine."

"Where do you want to go? Somewhere fancy?"

"Not really, let me change and we'll go to Remy's or something. Anything else would be too much like a date." She said, pushing him away so she could open up the closet herself, revealing a fancy dress that she didn't even remember owning. Knowing that was way too fancy for Remy's she shut the door and tried again. This time revealing a different, but still extremely fancy, dress.

She tried over and over, but still getting the same results, finally resulting in her kicking and cursing the stupid closet.

"You know, I think your closet is trying to tell you something."

"Zip it, Castle."

She opened it one more time, revealing a dress that she was pretty much certain she had never, ever bought.

"I'll just go make a reservation somewhere while you get changed." Castle said, already pulling out his phone to make reservations at a classy restaurant, glad to know that even a space-time continuum knew that he and Beckett were meant to be.


	28. one a day keeps laryngitis away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett has Laryngitis and can't talk, good thing Castle can easily figure out what she wants to say.

"What's that boss? Sorry, can't hear you. Think me and Ryan here will go get some early lunch, that's okay, isn't it?" Esposito waited for a minute but got no vocal response from the female detective. "Alright then, see you later."

Ryan and Esposito headed out of the bullpen, only to be stopped by Castle before they could get too far. "I'm going to say that judging by the very, very angry look on her face, that you guys should probably get some more work done first."

"Dude, come on. We've done enough, plus Beckett can't exactly tell us not to go."

"Why not?"

"She's got laryngitis, can't talk." Abandoning the two detectives, Castle made his way over to Beckett. "Shouldn't you be at home, resting? You know, so you can actually get better?"

She gave him a pointed look and an eyeroll.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're fine so you need to come into work. But still, you could take a day off every now and then."

Another look.

"Oh don't give me that, I know how many sick days you have piled up because you never use them."

A glare this time.

"Okay, I'll drop it. Anything I can get for you?"

Beckett made a gesture with her arms that Esposito and Ryan, who were watching this scene in amusement, didn't understand, but Castle did. "Coffee? But won't that hurt your throat?"

A deadpanned look.

"You don't care, okay, be right back."

It only took a few minutes before he was handing her a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

"You're welcome."

She gave him a look that he interpreted as surprised, and a little creeped out.

"I know, it is a little freaky isn't it? I just know you very well that's all. I can easily figure out what you would say, part of being a writer."

Eyebrows raised, she gestured to Ryan and Esposito who were still standing near the edge of the bullpen, having gotten too interesting in watching their interactions to realize they should have used that as a chance to escape for lunch.

"She wants to tell you that if you guys leave now, she's putting you on desk duty for two weeks, no field work, no interrogations, nothing."

"Okay, now that is really freaky." Esposito commented when Beckett turned back to her computer with a smirk, that having been exactly what she wanted to threaten them with.

Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't completely creeped out by the end of the day, since Castle had been extremely good at vocalizing what she wanted to say to various people throughout the day.


	29. one a day keeps laryngitis away...again.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle 'somehow' caught Beckett's laryngitis so now it's his turn to be the one unable to speak.

"Dude, Castle has been really quiet today, you think she's mad at him?"

"I don't know...You don't think it's because of that do you?"

"Oh now that would be hilarious. Guess we should find out." Esposito said, cutting their conversation short and heading over to the writer and detective duo, with Ryan following him.

"Yo, Castle!" Castle turned towards them with a questioning look but didn't say anything.

"Oooh, seriously?" Esposito turned towards Beckett. "How'd he catch that from you? You two weren't that close yesterday, but then again we don't know what happened after you two left... So? How about it? Did you two get up close and personal last night? Doing some smooching behind closed doors?"

"Don't you two have paperwork to do?"

"Nope, completely caught up, isn't that right, Ryan?"

"Yup, nothing to do unless a body drops."

Beckett noticed Castle's hand starting to twitch, a sign that he was getting annoyed or irritated. "I suggest you go find something else to do before Castle here decides to pass it along to you."

"Pass it along?" Esposito watched as Castle made a show of puckering up his lips and Esposito freaked and backpedaled away from the writer in horror. "Don't you dare, bro, don't you dare. I will make you bleed... Nasty."

Castle smirked at him and opened his mouth to speak, before realizing he couldn't, so he turned towards Beckett and grabbed her arm to get her attention.

When he had her attention, he started making various gestures, trying to get her to translate what he wanted to say to Esposito.

"What now? You want to tell Esposito something? About...Elephants? No...Spaceships? No? That movement seriously looked like a spaceship though..." Beckett tried to keep an innocent and confused look on her face, while inside she was smirking evilly.

She knew very well what he was trying to say to Esposito, and could easily translated for him, but where was the fun in that?


	30. one a day keeps the mini Becketts away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle walks into the precinct one day only to find something not quite right with Beckett...

Castle walked into the precinct carrying two cups of steaming hot coffee, fully expecting to find his favorite detective sitting at her desk.

So when he found someone else sitting in her spot, playing on her computer, he was rightfully confused.

Even more so when he got close enough to the desk to take in the appearance of the girl sitting at Beckett's desk. She was nearly the spitting image of Beckett, right down to the clothes she normally wore. The only thing that was different was that the heels on the person's shoes were a considerable bit smaller than what Beckett normally wore, oh and the fact that this person couldn't have been more than five years old.

"B-Beckett?" He stuttered, catching attention of the girl who turned to him with an expression nearly identical to one Beckett would be giving him right now.

"What, Castle?" The voice was definitely not Beckett's, but the annoyed tone was.

So he could only come to one conclusion.

"Beckett shrunk!" Mini-Beckett rolled her eyes at him and turned back to the apparently very entertaining game of solitaire she was playing on the computer, leaving him to try and wrap his mind around the fact that Beckett was now a little girl.

He was still standing there with his mouth gaping open when the sounds of laughter reached his ears and he turned around to see a group of people he had apparently not even noticed when he walked in.

His eyes took in the sight of the two male detectives, and Lanie, nearly rolling on the floor they were laughing so hard, then landed on the sight of Beckett, the non-small version of Beckett who was doing only a little better than the other three.

He looked at the tiny version of Beckett, then back at the normal version of Beckett, his writer's mind bringing up all kinds of scenarios- she had a kid she didn't tell him about, clones, he was just seeing things- but not able to think of one that really fit.

A few minutes later, Beckett was finally able to control her laughing fit long enough to walk over and pick the girl up out of her chair, turning towards Castle with a smirk on her face.

"I shrunk? Is that really all you could come up with?"

He finally snapped out of his shock induced daze. "What else was I suppose to think? She is like an exact copy of you, only smaller! Who, or what, is she?"

"This is Lori, one of Lanie's cousins."

"Lanie's cousin?" He looked towards the african-american M.E. then back at the little girl who was clearly not african-american.

"Her family is huge, and very...diverse." Beckett said by way of explanation.

Lanie finally stopped laughing enough to calm down and jump into the conversation. "It's true, we've got a little bit of just about every race there is on this planet. I've got cousins everywhere, some black, some Hispanic, and even some that are so white you'd think they've never seen a ray of sun in their lives."

"But, that doesn't explain the clothes, or how she knew me..." Castle trailed off and looked at the little girls clothes.

"Yeah, well..." Beckett flushed a little in embarrassment and Lanie had to finish explaining.

"Lori here has got a bit of hero worshiping going on right now. She really, really loves her 'Aunt Katie' and wants to be just like her."

"Aunt Katie?" Castle asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"Not a word, Castle. Not a word."


	31. one a day breaks rule number one...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rule #1 of the 12th precinct's homicide division: Never, ever leave food on Beckett's desk, unless you are through with it.

Lanie had just gotten back from lunch, and since she had some time left on her lunch break plus the fact that she couldn't bare to part with her double chocolate caramel sundae, she brought it back to work with her.

She had intended to eat it in her small office, and savor every last delicious drop of it, but Perlmutter dashed that dream when he shoved a file in her face the minute she walked into the morgue.

"Take this up to homicide, will you? Your friends seem to think they absolutely need it right now, don't they understand that I do have other bodies to tend to?" He continued on but Lanie had figured out long ago that when he went off on one of this many, many rants, it was just best to walk away. So she took the file, and her sundae, and headed up to pay her friends in the homicide division a visit.

By the time she stepped out of the elevator on the homicide floor, there was a decent sized dent in her sundae.

"Hey Lain! Mind giving us a hand here?" Esposito called from his position by the murder board as he and Ryan tried to fix one of the wheels that had fallen off, only they couldn't keep it steady and figure out how the wheel had come off at the same time.

"Sure." She said, going to place her ice cream down on her boyfriend's desk, only to see it covered in various files and papers. Turning slightly, she realized Ryan's was the same way so she walked over and put it on Beckett's desk before walking over to help the two detectives with the murder board.

Realizing that they were disturbing the other officers who were actually trying to get some work done, Lanie, Ryan, and Esposito moved the broken murder board into the break room so they wouldn't be in the way.

What Lanie didn't know is that you never, ever leave food on Beckett's desk, unless you are through with it.

A few minutes after they had moved into the break room, Beckett came from the Captain's office and sat down at her desk, not even thinking twice before pulling the ice cream closer to her and taking a bite of the delicious chocolate treat.

She was only able to take a few bites before Karpowski was calling her over to look at something Beckett had asked her to search for.

While Beckett was busy with Karpowski, Castle came back from having lunch with Alexis and seeing that Beckett was busy, he took a seat at her desk to wait for her. His eyes were instantly drawn to the ice cream, and since he didn't have time to have dessert earlier, he carefully pulled it towards him and took a bite.

Castle worked on eating the sundae for a few minutes before Beckett came back to her desk, promptly stealing the ice cream from him and started eating it again.

He let her have a few bites before stealing it back, and they continued sharing it until it was nearly gone.

There was one spoonful left and they were arguing over who would get it when Karpowski got their attention by saying their main suspect had been spotted at one of his regular haunts and the writer and detective duo hurried out of the precinct to catch the guy.

The doors of the elevator had just shut when Lanie came out of the break room, having finally helped the boys fix the murder board, only to find that there was nothing but a few drops of her sundae left.

"What the hell? Alright, which one of you idiots ate my ice cream?"

Esposito came up to her and saw the nearly empty bowl on Beckett's desk.

"Oh you left it on Beckett's desk?"

"Yeah? Because yours was too crowded, I didn't want it to accidentally drip on anything important."

"You shouldn't have done that. Castle brings food stuff in here all the time, and Beckett started doing it too, so they automatically assume that anything left on the desk is something one of them brought and they have no problem stealing each others food, so it will be gone in no time."

"They steal each others food, huh?"

"All the time."

"That's so adorable!" Lanie said, already planning to use her next lunch break to leave food on Beckett's desk and watch what happens.


	32. one a day keeps the spaghetti monster away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Only your daughter would have nightmares about a flying spaghetti monster."

"'I will defeat you, you terrible beast!' The brave writer yelled at the beast before rushing at him, bravely dodging the beast's many hands that tried to stop him from getting close to the monster. 'Hi-yah!' The writer jumped at the monster, and with his mighty fork and knife of justice, he gobbled the flying spaghetti monster right up. And that, my dear, is how your awesome daddy saved everyone from the flying spaghetti monster."

"Ee! Daddy hero!" Tiny little, almost two year old, Emily Johanna Castle said, not quite able to make full sentences yet, when her father got through telling her a bed time story.

"That's right, baby girl." Castle said, tucking his daughter in and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Mommy hero too?"

"That's right, mommy is out catching bad guys all the time. And now it's time for good little princesses to go to bed. Goodnight, Em."

He watched his daughter start to fall back to sleep before making his way to bed to get some sleep of his own.

Castle slipped into his side of the bed carefully, so as to not disturb his sleeping wife who had managed to sleep through their daughters crying when she had woken up from a bad dream, about a flying spaghetti monster no less. So being the 'awesome daddy' that he was, he had gotten up and spun a vivid tale of how he vanquished the monster so that his daughter could get some sleep, and that he could too.

He was just about to drift off to sleep when Kate rolled over and wrapped her arms around him.

"Flying spaghetti monster, really?"

"Hey, it was her idea, not mine."

"Only your daughter would have nightmares about a flying spaghetti monster."

"At least she is creative."


	33. one a day is the best ride ever...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle plus Beckett plus bathing suits plus water slides equals Caskett summer fluff!

"Huff...Huff...I'm getting too old for this. Why hasn't anyone decided it would be a good idea to, I don't know, install elevators or at least escalators on these things?" Castle panted as he and Alexis carried the inflatable intertube up the long, long staircase to get to the top of the monstrous slide.

Alexis grunted in agreement and trudged on, fairing a little bit better than her father, but not by much since this was the only ride they hadn't ridden yet, and they saved the best, biggest, for last.

They finally made it to the top a few minutes later, and were able to rest while they waited in line for their turn. By the time they were settled in the large intertube, they were rested and ready to tackle the biggest water ride in the entire park.

Without a warning, the ride workers gave their intertube a shove and they were sent screaming down the slide, flying over a small drop off only to land on the main part of the ride that consisted of a large curved wall. The water pushed them up the wall until they were sure they were going to fall off at any moment, before they began their fast decent down the wall, eventually coming to a spinning stop at the pool at the end of the ride.

"Whoa... Okay, we definitely have to go on that one again. Preferably later though."

"Right, I don't think I could even make it up all those stairs again. Maybe we should go check on Gram and relax a bit?"

"Sounds perfect." Castle said as they made their way back to the section of lounge chairs that were set up by the large wave pool. They found her exactly where they left her nearly an hour before, stretched out on a chair, working on her tan.

The father and daughter team relaxed on the chairs for a while, but it didn't take long for Castle's attention to start to wander around, before settling on a very large group of people who had just walked into the water park.

The group was very diverse, he was pretty sure there was every race, and maybe every age group, except for there didn't seem to be any elderly people. And if that wasn't enough to catch his attention, the fact that they seemed to be breaking off into smaller groups of three to four children and one to two adults in each group, each group having their own colored armbands.

Castle watched as the adults arranged and rearranged their groups until they were finally happy before each smaller group headed off in a different direction. There were five groups in total, plus a woman with a small baby that didn't seem to be part of any of the smaller groups.

Four of the five groups headed towards the various rides, while the red group, consisting of one adult and three children, headed towards the wave pool, along with the other woman and her baby.

While they were separating into groups earlier, they were too far away so Castle couldn't really see much about them, but as they came closer he could see them more clearly.

There were three children in the red group, and if he had to say, he'd say they were probably around the ages two, six, and eight. He was just about to be able to get a good look at the woman who was obviously the leader of the group, when they turned to the right and headed away from him, obviously going to the kiddy pool, instead of the wave pool like he had originally thought.

The woman reminded him of Beckett in a way, and immediately his mind drifted to thoughts of Beckett in a bathing suit. He was in the middle of trying to figure out what type of bathing suit Beckett would wear, when Alexis interrupted his thoughts by saying she was heading for the wave pool. Deciding that it was getting a little hot, he got up and joined her in the pool.

~~~

"Aw man, I don't want the little ones! I want to go on the rides!" Malcolm, a middle aged man whined when the rest of the family tried to stick the littler kids in his group.

"I'll take them." A female voice spoke up from the back of the group.

"Really? You don't have to do that, Kate."

"It's fine. We just finished a hard case and I'm not looking forward to going on the slides right now. Maybe we could switch later on?"

"Sure!" Malcolm agreed quickly and the rest of the sorting was done quickly and soon Beckett was surrounded by a tiny girl and two little boys.

"Here." Lanie said, handing Beckett four red armbands, one large one and three smaller ones that Beckett quickly fastened to herself and the three children.

Lanie had so many children and teens in her family that anytime they had a family outing like this, they used the armband/group system just to make it easier to keep track of all of them. The more adults that could come to keep and eye on the children, the better. Which unfortunately meant they usually talked Beckett, who had been friends with Lanie since college, into coming with them and helping.

Once all the armbands were secured, the groups wandered off into various directions, most going towards the rides while Beckett took her group towards the kiddy pool, along with Marianne and her little girl.

The two boys quickly jumped into the shallow water of the kiddy pool and started splashing each other while the little girl hung back by Beckett, a little hesitant about going into the water with her cousins.

"Don't you want to go in the water, Rachel?" The little girl quickly shook her head so Beckett walked to the edge of the pool and spend a good ten minutes getting the little girl used to the water until she was happily splashing around in it.

"You are so good with them." Marianne commented from her place to the left of where Beckett was stretched out, relaxing in the shallow water while keeping an eye on the children.

"Well I've certainly had enough practice." She replied, referring to the many, many times she had babysat for Lanie's family during her college years.

"That's true, I think you, Lanie, and me practically raised some of these brats."

"Oh that is so true." They chit-chatted for a while longer, until Beckett, being the observant detective that she is, noticed Marianne looking towards the rides with a longing look.

"You know, I can watch Annie for you if you want to go help out the others with the older kids."

"Oh no, I couldn't do that. You already have those three to watch, you don't need to watch her too."

Beckett thought about it for a minute before calling Annie's name and getting the seven month old's attention and making a 'come here' motion, which had Annie practically clawing her way out of her mother's hold to get to her 'Auntie Katie'.

"See? She wants to be with me. Now go have fun, you deserve it." She said once Annie was securely in her arms.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, but only for a little bit." Marianne took of to find one of the other groups and Beckett got Annie used to the water some more before noticing that the boys were getting bored of the kiddy pool and deciding it was time to go test out the wave pool.

As soon as they got close enough, the boys took off into the pool with the same enthusiasm they had for the kiddy pool earlier and she warned them not to go past a certain depth, but let them do what they wanted since she knew they were both excellent swimmers.

The pool was the type that was made to not have stairs, but instead just gradually got deeper the farther you walked into the pool. Beckett walked deep enough so that she could sit down with the water covering her lap and set Annie in her lap, to let her splash around, while Rachel was content to sit down next to her and splash around too.

Just a few minutes after getting settled into the water, the boys started fighting and she took her attention off Rachel to find out what the boys were arguing about this time. It didn't even take a minute, but when she turned to look for Rachel, she was not where Beckett had left her.

A quick search revealed that she had wandered off and was heading straight for a red-headed teen who was lying in the shallow part of the water.

Beckett quickly hoisted Annie up higher on her hip and set off at a trot, but didn't make it in time to stop Rachel from tripping and landing on the teen's stomach with a loud smack. With a small shriek, the teen sat up and Rachel rolled off her stomach onto her lap, giggling happily at the reaction she had gotten.

"I'm so sorry! I took my eyes off her for a few seconds and she apparently decided that was a good time to go exploring..." She trailed off as she got closer to the teen, and recognized her. "Alexis?"

"Detective Beckett?"

They didn't get to say much more before Castle was running up to them, not even noticing Beckett at first. "Alexis? Are you okay? I thought I heard..."

"I'm okay dad. This little girl here just decided my stomach looked like a soft landing place." Alexis gestured to the little girl who had made herself comfortable on her lap.

"Aw, she's a cutie."

"She is. What's her name?" Alexis directed the last part towards Beckett, and Castle finally noticed her presence, having been too worried about his daughter to notice her before.

"Beckett!" His eyes involuntarily scanned her form, reveling in the fact that he was right about her bathing suit choice, before settling on the baby in her arms. "Is there something you aren't telling us, detective?"

"And what if there was?" She watched his eyes get comically big, but then he noticed the armbands and things started to fall into place.

"You were with that huge group earlier weren't you? I saw how you all divided up like that."

"You were watching us?"

"I didn't know it was you! I was just curious... So? Who are they?"

"Lanie's cousins. Rachel is the one who seems to have taken a liking to Alexis, and Annie is the one I am holding. There are also two boys, Troy and Eric, over there, along with the rest of the group that are around here somewhere."

"Whoa, all those people are related to Lanie? I knew her family was big but, wow."

"Yup, amazing isn't it? And that's not even including the older people who didn't come today."

Annie decided that she had had enough of being ignored and started reaching out towards Castle so he would hold her. Not wanting to overstep any boundaries, he looked to Beckett for permission and after debating it for a minute, she handed the girl over to him.

Castle immediately swung her up into his arms and started making faces and doing various things until she was cooing and giggling like crazy. Beckett had seen him be a father to Alexis, but never like this so she probably could, and would have, stayed there staring at him if Rachel hadn't gotten her attention.

"Auntie Katie!" She ignored the grin Castle had on his face and walked over to the little girl who was still on Alexis' lap and bent down so they were eye level.

"What is it, Rach?"

"Show you!"

"Show me something? What?" The little girl stuck her hand under the water, and even though Beckett knew what was going to happen, she bent down anyway to get a face full of water when Rachel splashed her.

"Got you!" The little girl collapsed in a fit of giggles, causing them all to smile at her.

"Hi Rachel, my name is Alexis, can you say Alexis?" The teen introduced herself to the little girl for the first time since she had fallen on her earlier.

"Lexis!"

"Close enough. Want to learn a new trick? If you put your hand like this and put it in the water, you can squirt it from your hand." She said, showing the little girl step by step.

"Gah! Don't teach her that!" But it was too late, Rachel had already learned it and was soon running around the shallow water squirting everyone she could.

"You've created a monster." Beckett gave in and plopped down in the water next to Alexis, knowing that Rachel wouldn't want to part from her new found friend anytime soon.

"Lexis, look!" Rachel spun around and then sat down in the water really fast, creating a big splash.

"Wow! That's really cool!" Alexis humored the little girl and moved over towards her so they could be in a little bit deeper water and started a splash war with the girl who enthusiastically fought back.

"She's good with kids." Beckett commented when Castle gently sat down next to her with Annie.

"Yeah she is, which is surprising since she hasn't really been around that many little children, not since she was that little at least. Guess she just has a talent for it."

Seeing that their cousin had found a new playmate, the boys wandered over to join Alexis and Rachel in their water battle and soon there was water flying everywhere.

The kids were just trying to get Beckett and Castle to join in their water battle when Annie decided that she was hungry, and she was going to be fed right that instant or she was going to keep screaming until her lungs exploded.

Not wanting to drag the kids away from their fun just because of Annie, Beckett turned to Castle. "Would you mind watching them while I feed Annie? It shouldn't take too long."

Castle, of course, agreed and went to join in the battle while Beckett headed towards the lockers and used the key Marianne had left with Annie to open their locker and pull out a bottle of formula. It only took a few minutes to get the bottle ready and after she did, she walked back out towards the wave pool and lounge chair area, intending to just grab a nearby chair for now but as she was walking towards that area, she caught Martha's eye and decided she might as well have someone to talk with while she was feeding her.

"Detective Beckett, what are you doing here? And who is this adorable little child you have with you?" Martha said as Beckett gently sat down on the chair that Castle he used earlier, if the crime scene towel was any indicator.

"I'm here with Lanie's family to help keep all the kids in line, this is Annie, one of Lanie's many, many cousins."

"Hello there, Annie." Martha cooed at the baby but Annie was too focused on her bottle to pay attention too much else.

"I guess it's safe to assume you know that Richard is here?"

"Yeah, he's actually watching the rest of the kids I am in charge of right now while I feed Annie. He's really good with kids." She couldn't help commenting.

"He is, Alexis came as such a surprise to him that I didn't know how he would handle it, but he adapted extremely well."

"Ah..." She trailed off, not really knowing what else to say.

"Do you know what surprises me the most?"

"Hmm?"

"That he doesn't have three or four other children by now. He's been wanting to have more ever since Alexis started school and he realized that one day his little baby was going to be grown. Guess he's just waiting for the right woman to be their mother." Martha glanced at Beckett out of the corner of her eye and Beckett had her head tilted down, pretending not to have noticed Martha's glance.

Annie quickly finished her bottle and was happy again, finally taking notice of the actress who was looking at her again.

"Hello there, little one."

Annie cooed in response getting a big grin from Martha.

"Well aren't you just adorable? Come to Martha!" She pretty much plucked Annie out of Beckett's hands, not even bothering to ask permission like Castle did before.

But Annie was obviously totally okay with it, so Beckett didn't mind. It was only when a few minutes passed and Martha's fascination with Annie didn't go away that she realized they might have a problem.

"I should probably go make sure they aren't torturing Castle..." Beckett tried to hint to Martha, but she either didn't get the hint, or ignored it all together.

"Go, go right ahead, go have some fun yourself, I'll keep this little one busy."

"Um..."

And now Martha was totally ignoring Beckett in favor of the baby so she made her way back to the wave pool to see Castle chasing the two boys around while Alexis was playing a game with Rachel.

Being as sneaky as she could while wading through increasingly deep water, Beckett made her way behind Castle then tackled him into the water.

"What was that for?" He asked when he surfaced to find out that Beckett was the one who tackled him.

"Oh I don't know, maybe pay back for stealing the last snickers bar from my stash, again!"

"Oh good, I thought this was about your coffee cup... Oh, er..."

"Castle... What did you mean by that?"

"Nothing!"

She tried to think of anything having to do with her favorite coffee cup, but the only thing she could think of was that it looked especially clean, almost new recently.

"Did you break my cup?"

"No?"

"Castle!"

He took off running and she followed, tackling him once more before getting knocked down by one of the waves when they ventured too deep into the pool.

It didn't take long before she remembered that she had stuck Alexis with the kids so they quickly made their way back to the shallower parts, to see that Alexis had them all playing a game of 'marco polo'.

"We have a problem." Beckett said once they had both caught their breathe.

"Oh?"

"Yeah, your mom is holding Annie hostage."

"Oh boy. I should have warned you, she has a tendency to do that."

Beckett turned towards the entrance of the pool when she heard someone calling her name, only to see Marianne standing there, looking kinda confused when she realized Beckett didn't have Annie.

"I'll be right back." She told the group and headed over to Marianne, explaining that she had met some friends here and that Martha didn't want to let Annie go. When Beckett introduced the two, they hit it off really well and even though Martha was still holding on to Annie, Marianne was content to let her hold her while she rested.

With nothing else to do, Beckett headed back to her group and they played around in the wave pool until Malcolm and his group of teens got tired of the rides and came to relax in the wave pool, leaving Beckett free of any children for a while, since Malcolm's group wanted to stay in the pool.

"How about it, Castle? Up for a couple of rides? Or all you tired already."

Of course he was tired, but this was Beckett- and he'd probably never get a chance like this again- so he agreed to go with her, though Alexis opted to stay behind.

They went on a few of the good rides- that Castle picked out since he and Alexis went on them earlier- and they had a lot of fun.

Castle was sure he would have enjoyed it a lot more if he hadn't been so tired from the rides already.

Beckett was getting tried too so they agreed to go on only one more ride, which happened to have one of the longest staircases and walking distance.

They complained as they trudged up the path carrying the raft that was more like a boat than an intertube, and were grateful when they finally made it to the top.

The ride workers instructed Castle to sit at the back of the boat and Beckett to sit in the front, but it was small so she was basically sitting in between his legs, with a little space between her back and his chest.

When he rode this ride with Alexis earlier, he enjoyed it a lot. It was face paced and thrilling when you went up the sides of the slide when you turned the corner, and then of course there is the unexpected ten foot drop off at the end of the slide.

But this time, he enjoyed it even more, for an entirely different reason.

The workers pulled their raft into place, and once they were given the signal, they pushed them down the slide and they were off like a rocket. The speed that they were going forced Beckett backwards into his chest so that she was pressed tightly against him the whole way down.

The absolute best part came near the end when he wrapped his arms around her waist, despite her squeak of protest that quickly turned into a scream, as they plummeted ten feet into the water below, the raft slipping out from under them so that they plunged into the cold water together.

He reluctantly let her go so they could swim up to the surface and grab their run away raft before swimming towards the exit.

As they climbed out, Castle turned to her, all signs of fatigue completely gone.

"Let's do that again!"

Beckett looked at the long staircase, and long path leading to the staircase, and then back at him.

"You're joking, right?"

"Nope, let's go!" He grabbed her hand and all but dragged her back up to the ride.

This was officially his favorite ride ever. He just hoped that no one ever asked him to describe it because he wasn't able to focus on anything else other than the beautiful detective pressed against his chest.


	34. one a day keeps the trying cases away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Martha finds out that Alexis can't go on a spa trip with her, she ends up asking a certain detective instead.

With a loud groan, Beckett reached out a hand from her place on the couch, where she had collapsed hours earlier and hadn't moved from, to reach her ringing cell phone on the coffee table.

"Hello?" She asked wearily, praying that she didn't have another case already.

"Ah um, Detective Beckett?" The person on the other end responded, and it took her a minute to figure out whose voice it was.

"Martha? Is something wrong?"

"No, no. Everything is fine dear." Beckett let out a breathe she didn't even know she had been holding, still on edge from the horrible case they had just went through.

"Oh? Is there something I can help you with, then?"

The older woman was silent for a few minutes, just long enough for Beckett to start to get paranoid that there really was something wrong.

"Ah no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have even bothered you...It's just that Alexis has that test and there is absolutely no way Richard would go with me, and I don't particularly want to go by myself so Alexis suggested that I might ask you but I feel like I shouldn't be bothering you-"

"Martha." She cut her off, realizing that if she didn't, the actress was likely to keep talking all night long and she just wanted to relax after that case. "It's okay, you aren't bothering me. What did you want to ask me?"

"Have you ever heard of the Oasis of Serenity?"

"It's some kind of spa like thing, I think? I vaguely remember hearing about it. Why?"

"That's the place, they call it a 'spiritual retreat' and it's supposed to be amazing. I was lucky enough to score two incredibly hard to get spots there, but I didn't know that Alexis has a physics text that she needs to study for and won't come with me. So I was thinking maybe you would like to come along?"

Normally, she would politely decline, coming up with some excuse, but after the incredibly trying case they just wrapped up? She could use it. Nothing like a trip to the spa to get rid of a quarantine scare.

"Are you sure? You don't want to take one of your acting friends?"

"Oh no, dear. Any one of them would drive me completely crazy if I took one of them. I would very much enjoy it if you would come with me, if you aren't busy that is. Oh, and we'll need to leave tonight, or we might be able to make it early in the morning if we have to."

"How much time do I have to pack, if we leave tonight?"

They finalized some of the details of their trip and as soon as she got off the phone with Martha, she quickly called the Captain and let him know that he wouldn't have to fight her about taking the weekend off.

A hour, and many espressos later, she was all packed and ready to go.

"Well, looks like you found someone to go with you after all, or did you end up deciding to go by yourself?" Castle asked as Martha came down the stairs with a large suitcase in hand.

"As a matter of fact, I did find someone. Thanks to Alexis."

Hearing her name, Alexis came out of the kitchen where she was cleaning up dinner.

"Really? She said yes?"

"Surprisingly, yes she did."

"You two are really not making it easy to figure out who you are talking about, you know." Castle spoke up, feeling left out.

"Oops, sorry dad." She was going to tell him, but then the doorbell rang and she figured she'd let him find out on his own. "Why don't you go see for yourself."

"I will." He walked over to the front door, using the small amount of time to go through the list of people he thought could be behind the door.

But when he opened it, he definitely wasn't expecting Beckett to be standing there.

"Beckett?"

"Hey, Castle. Is Martha ready yet?"

"Yeah, I think so." Castle moved off to the side and let her walk in, still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that Beckett agreed to go with his mother somewhere, and the fact that they would be alone together and would most likely talk about him.

He wasn't really sure how he felt about that last part.

"Detective Beckett! Right on time." Martha said before gathering the detective in her arms for a hug, that Beckett returned with a laugh.

"I think you can start calling me Kate now, Martha." She pulled away from the actress and was immediately hugged by Alexis, who she hadn't gotten to see in a while.

"I'm so glad you two are okay! Grams and I were both terrified when they said you two had been put into quarantine."

"It was a pretty scary experience, I hope we never have to go through that again." She gave the girl one last squeeze and then pulled away and turned towards Castle.

"The Captain doesn't want to see either of us over the weekend, so stay out of the precinct until I get back."

"And miss a perfect opportunity to raid your candy stash? As if."

"If even a single gummy bear is missing from my stash..." She didn't bother finishing her threat, knowing that his mind would come up with various scenarios for her if she just left the thought hanging.

"Duly noted."

"Perfect. Ready to go?" She asked Martha who nodded and pulled her suitcase along behind her as they walked out of the loft.

"To Serenity!"


	35. one a day still doesn't keep the meddling ghosts away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghost!Johanna is back to meddle again!

A puffy-eyed Kate Beckett was surprised to find Castle ringing her doorbell late one night, holding various tubs of ice cream, after she had just had a very nasty break up with Josh.

Said break up had only occurred a few hours ago, and she had yet to tell anyone, so of course she was curious as to how the writer knew.

"A little birdie told me." He would say no matter how many times she asked him once she had let him in, and he told her that he was there to bring comfort food after hearing about her break up with Josh.

Even though she still didn't know how he knew she needed company, she was grateful that he came over, bringing ice cream and cheering her up with his antics.

She was, however, starting to doubt his sanity when she walked in on him talking to himself, for the third time, but brushed it off as they got caught up in a conversation that eventually led to them talking about their childhoods.

"You know, I wish you could have met my mom, I think she would have liked you." Beckett casually mentioned, completely missing the look Castle gave to an invisible form casually floating in the air off to the side of them.

"If you only knew..."

She looked at him with a confused expression but he distracted her with something else, trying very hard to ignore the form of Johanna Beckett floating around the apartment, watching them with an amused, and pleased, expression.

Beckett was wrong. Johanna didn't like him, she loved him. Loved to mess with him, and his love life, that is.


	36. one a day doesn't keep Alexander at bay...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crack!Fic. Beckett's closet decides to have a little fun with the detective and her writer friend.

"Alright, Alexander, what am I going to wear today?" Beckett asked her closet, who she had recently nicknamed Alexander, mostly because it was being annoying and childish just like Castle, but it would be too weird to name her closet Castle.

Not that it wasn't weird to name a closet in the first place, but her closet was special. Or more specifically, the black hole residing inside her closet was special.

She took a deep breath and opened the door to the closet, seeing a full outfit- complete with scarf, socks, and coat- hanging alone in the closet.

"Good boy."

~~~

 

"I need something to sleep in." Beckett shut the door and waited a moment to open it, revealing a single large shirt hanging on a hanger.

"I was kinda hoping for some leggings too..." She muttered but Alexander was being uncooperative so she pulled out the shirt and started putting it on, before realizing it definitely wasn't hers.

It was a white and blue striped button down shirt, and while she had one similar to it, this was definitely not hers. In fact, if she didn't know any better, she'd be willing to bet that it was a certain writer's.

But that was ridiculous.

Deciding she was too tired to think about it, she slipped the very comfortable shirt on and headed to bed.

~~~

"It's going to get cold later this evening so I'm going to need a coat too." Beckett said, pulling on the suit Alexander had picked out for her before opening the closet door again to see a very large brown coat that wasn't hers.

Thinking that she had seen that coat before, she pulled it out of the closet and stuck her hands in the pockets, pulling out a wallet. Castle's wallet to be exact.

"Come on, I'm going to be late." Opening the door again revealed one of her coats and she quickly put it on then draped Castle's coat over her arm, after putting the wallet back, and drove over to Castle's loft.

"Here, I think you might need this." She said once she made her way up to the loft, handing over the coat to a very confused Castle before leaving for work.

~~~

Beckett stumbled into her apartment after a Girl's Night Out with Lanie, just drunk enough to be unsteady on her feet. She kicked off her ridiculously high heels and headed towards her bedroom, intending to sleep it off in her nice comfy bed. Only she didn't quite make it all the way there.

Halfway to the bed, she slipped on a pile of clothes she had left in the middle of the floor earlier- so that she would be forced to remember to do laundry- and started falling towards the closed closet door. As she fell, she was just sober enough to realize that her head was headed right for the pointy door handle of the closet.

I can see it now: Famous Detective found dead in her apartment from apparently slipping on a pile of dirty laundry and hitting her head on her evil closet's door handle. She thought, but before her head made contact, the door swung inwards- which shouldn't be possible since normally it swung outwards- and she instead fell into the closet.

She was just about to pull herself up off the floor of the closet, when the door shut and the strangest feeling came over her.

She was inside the black hole. Now that was a thought that would instantly sober anyone up.

She felt like she was floating in the dark and she desperately tried to push herself in any direction, trying to get out, shouting the whole time.

It seemed like forever, but it was really only a few minutes before she was released from the black hole.

The closet door opened again and she was literally thrown out of the closet, flying a decent distance to land on an unfamiliar bed. And it's occupant.

"Oof! What the?" Castle groaned and sat up when something landed on him, and never in a million years did he expect to see Kate Beckett sprawled across his lap, on his bed, late at night.

"Beckett?"

"Castle!" Beckett looked up at him, just as surprised at where she was as he was.

"Um what..." Whatever he was going to say was lost when he turned on the light and saw what she was wearing.

Seeing where his eyes were, she looked down, seeing that she definitely wasn't wearing what she was earlier.

Apparently sometime during her trip in the black hole, she had been changed into a dress that was definitely not hers. In fact, it looked like one of Lanie's. Not just because of the risque style, but also because of how short it was on her.

"Oh for the love of..."

"Um Beckett? Not that I'm complaining, but why are you here? And for that matter, how did you get in?"

Now how in the world was she going to explain this? She was so going to kill Alexander as soon as she borrowed some clothes so she wouldn't have to walk home in the scrap of a dress she was now wearing.


	37. one a day doesn't keep Lanie away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lanie and Beckett have a Girl's Night after Beckett goes through a bad breakup with Josh.

"Get off your couch and find that sexy little red dress I made you buy a month ago, oh and those extremely cute pair of red stilettos I saw on the right side of your closet a few days ago. Put it on and do your hair, we are going out. I'll see you in half an hour." Lanie said, without preamble, when Beckett answered her phone.

"Lanie please, I don't feel like going out tonight."

"From what I heard about your break up with Doctor Boy, you need to get out, maybe have a drink or two. Or five."

"I'm fine, I just need some time alone, okay?" Beckett sighed and leaned back into her couch, really not wanting to go out, but knowing Lanie, she was likely to show up and drag her out anyway.

There was a moment of silence, and Beckett was starting to think that Lanie had just given up and started to head over to her apartment, when she finally spoke again.

"You really don't want to go out? Get some drinks at our favorite bar? Maybe do some karaoke?"

"Nope."

"Okay."

The words 'That's it?' where on the tip of her tongue, but she held them back and thanked her friend instead.

They hung up a few minutes later and Beckett was extremely grateful, but slightly suspicious, that Lanie had backed down so easily.

She didn't want to do anything after that horrible break up, that wouldn't have been as bad if it hadn't happened right smack dab in the middle of the precinct.

She settled into her couch, with the remote in hand, for twenty minutes before her door bell rang.

When she opened it up, she wasn't surprised to see Lanie on the other side.

She was, however, surprised to see that Lanie was dressed in what looked like an over-sized t-shirt and pajama pants.

"You want me to get dressed, and you are planning to go out in that? Something is wrong with this picture."

"You said you didn't want to go out, so we are staying in." She said, pushing past the detective and heading into the kitchen to put the ice cream she had brought into the freezer.

"Okay?" Beckett said confused as Lanie started pulling out various movies and junk food from the large sack she was carrying.

"Living room, now." Lanie ordered, literally pushing Beckett into the living room and making her sit on the couch before popping in a comedy that she was sure would have them both laughing like crazy by the end of it.

As they spent most of the night giggling and acting like teenagers, Beckett came to realize that Lanie was right, this was much better than spending her night sulking.

Later that night, Beckett was just about to slam the pillow down on Lanie's head, when Lanie whipped her phone out of nowhere, and snapped a picture of Beckett in the middle of their pillow fight.

"The great Kate Beckett having a pillow fight. I know a certain writer who would just love to see this."

"You wouldn't."

"I would." Beckett launched herself across the living room and tried to snatch the phone away, but Lanie was quicker.

"Oh, would you look at that. While dodging you I must have accidentally scrolled down my contacts, found writer boy's number, and sent it to him. All on accident. Oops?"

"Lanie!"

She was praying that a miracle would happen, that maybe it wouldn't get sent to him for one reason or another, but when she heard her text message tone go off, she knew he had seen it.

"Can I join in? Pretty please? I'm a pretty mean pillow thrower, I'll even wear the same short shorts and camisole as you, if I have to."

After reading the message, she became acutely aware of just how much skin she was showing in her really short shorts and thin camisole top.

Oh yes, she was going to have to get revenge on Lanie.

~~~

The next day, Javier Esposito nearly choked on his coffee when he got a picture of Lanie from Beckett, deciding he needed to be extremely nice to Beckett for a while for giving him such good blackmail material.


	38. one a day keeps the bomb away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> AU!Countdown: Castle and Beckett have to disarm a bomb, with only Agent Fallon as their guide.

_How do we always manage to get into these messes?_ Beckett thought to herself as she pulled off the lid of a crate and found the bomb inside of it.

They had just narrowly survived the freezer incident, and now they were facing a bomb. And the worst part? They were alone again. They had been kicked off the case for the second time, and had done some detecting on their own.

Obviously, they didn't learn their lesson the first time.

The bomb itself was in a secluded location, but they weren't sure how far the radiation would spread, so it would still be very, very deadly if it exploded.

So with five minutes left, she pulled out her phone and called Fallon.

"I don't have time for this right now!" He yelled angrily when he answered the phone, not knowing who was calling.

"Any idea how to diffuse a bomb?"

"Beckett?"

"And Castle, we found the bomb. It's in an out of the way place, but if the dispersal rate is even half of what your tech guys believe, it will easily reach a lot of people."

"Dammit!" He let out a very, very long string of curses before finally speaking to Beckett again. "You are going to have to do everything exactly as I say. I hope to god you have scissors in your car."

"I do."

"Good, if you have more than one pair, that's even better."

She popped the trunk of her car and reached into the tool box she kept in there for emergencies, pulling out two pairs of scissors, then shutting the trunk and handing the keys to Castle.

"Go, get as far away from here as you can."

He looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "I'm not leaving you here to do this by yourself, Kate."

"There is nothing you can do here, even if you take off now you might still be hit by the radiation if I can't stop it in time, but at least there will be less damage. Go!"

"I won't."

"Rick, please, we are running out of time."

"Actually," Fallon's voice started from the phone she had turned on speaker before she had grabbed the scissors. "He can help. It will be easier if you both disarm it."

"See? Okay, what do we do?" Castle said, taking pair of scissors from Beckett and heading over to the bomb with her following until they were standing in front of it.

"There should be a panel, not the one with the timer, but a different one, do you see it?"

"Yeah, it's on the right side."

"Carefully pry off the top of it and you should see a bunch of wires and computer chips." Beckett did as Fallon said and looked warily at all the wires and stuff.

"Okay, listen carefully you need to..." He told them step by step what to do, and they each took turns cutting a wire or pulling out a microchip, until there was only a minute remaining and only a few wires were left.

"If you followed the directions right, please god, you should each be holding a severed wire, correct?"

"Yes." They said at the same time.

"This is it. You are going to need to touch the open ends of those wires together. If you did it right, the bomb will lose its power. If not, it will explode the second those wires touch. I'm sorry, you two have to do this. No one else will be able to get there in time. You two have been major pains in my ass ever since I got this case, but I have to say, you two do some damn fine work."

"Thank you, you aren't as bad as we thought either." Beckett replied then turned her attention to Castle, who was trying to look calm, and failing badly.

"Ready, Castle?"

"As I'll ever be."

They were kneeling on the ground by the bomb with very little space between them. Beckett closed her eyes for a moment, and Castle thought she was going to touch her wire to the one he was holding, but instead she kept her hand still and leaned her body towards him until her lips touched his.

It was a gentle kiss, one that only lasted a few seconds before she pulled back slightly and opened her eyes, waiting until he did the same, hoping he would understand.

And he did. At least their last moments would be enjoyable.

He gave a slight nod and then placed his lips on hers, deepening the kiss, trying to show her just how he felt in one kiss.

When she felt the tip of his tongue touch her lips, asking for entrance, she parted her lips and let him in.

 _What a way to go._ They both thought at the same time as their lips were moving frantically over each other.

And then Beckett moved her hand forward and touched her wire to his.

~~~

Agent Fallon pulled his phone away from his ear to look at it when it let off a shrill sound, signaling that it was four o'clock and time was up.

"Beckett! Castle! What's going on?" He barked into the phone when there was just silence on the other end and then switched it to speaker so the other occupants of the car could hear.

There was a tense moment of silence before there was a rustling noise and finally, a voice.

"The timer is off. I think we are in the clear." Beckett said and Ryan, Esposito, and the Captain all let out a sigh of relief at hearing they were okay.

"Good job, I'll get the hazmat team out there to get rid of the Cobalt sixteen, stay with the bomb, but not too close to it just in case."

"Will do."


	39. one a day doesn't keep matching costumes away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time for Castle's Halloween party, and Beckett doesn't know it, but he is going to like her costume choice a lot.

"Lanie? What's up?" Beckett asked when she saw Lanie's name show up on her ringing phone as she relaxed on her couch with a good book, prepared to spend the whole evening doing nothing but relaxing.

"Girl! Where are you at?"

"Home? Where am I supposed to be?"

"You...Ugh, you don't even know what day it is, do you?"

It honestly took her a minute to figure out what day it was. "Wednesday the thirty-first?"

"Yes, but more importantly, it's eight o'clock on Halloween night. Does that help jog that memory of yours?"

"Shoot! I forgot! I'll be there as soon as possible!" Beckett hung up the phone on her friend and ran quickly to dig in her closet, hoping to god there was an old Halloween costume hidden in there somewhere because she had forgotten to go out and buy one, even though she had promised Castle she would actually be at his party this year.

She went through box after box, until she finally came up with a pair of realistic looking vampire fangs.

"This will have to do..." She mumbled, looking through her closet some more, this time looking for clothes she could use to pass as a vampire.

Reaching all the way to the back of the closet, she found a dress that she absolutely loved, but didn't get the chance to wear much.

It was a knee-length black dress made out of a type of lightweight satin material, but what she loved the most about it, was that it looked a lot like a trench coat.

Quickly stripping out of the clothes she was wearing, she pulled the dress over her head and secured the belt so that it scrunched the fabric perfectly right under her chest, making the plunging neckline show off just the right amount of skin.

Walking over to her dresser she pulled out a pair of black tights and slipped them on before going back to the closet and grabbing a pair of black ankle boots to complete the outfit. She didn't have much time, since she didn't want to be later than she already was, so she quickly glued in the fangs and then used some mouse on her hair and applied eyeliner to her eyes to give her a wild look and she was ready to go.

As quick as New York traffic would allow, she drove over to Castle's loft and was quickly let in by Martha, who started grinning as soon as she saw that Beckett was dressed as a vampire.

"Come in, dear, Richard was about to give up hope that you were coming. He's going to be very happy to see you."

"Um yeah, sorry I'm late." She said as she walked past Martha into the living room full of people.

"That's alright, you are here and that's all that matters. I'll go find Richard and let him know you are here." Martha left her alone, but that didn't last long as Lanie spotted her and rushed over.

"And just what are you supposed to be?" Instead of answering, Beckett just grinned, showing off the fangs.

"You forgot to get a costume didn't you?" Even with the pirate eye-patch covering one of her eyes, Lanie still manged to give Beckett a look that clearly said she knew she was right, and then her face broke out into a wide grin.

"I've been busy, okay? What's wrong with being a vampire?"

Lanie didn't have time to reply to that before Castle was calling Beckett's name and Beckett turned away from her friend to see both Castle and Alexis making their way towards her.

And then she realized why Lanie and Martha had both been grinning like idiots.

"Well would you look at that? A daddy vampire, a child vampire, and now a mommy vampire, we have a complete family of vampires!" Lanie said, loud enough for everyone to hear and turn towards the three who looked like they had coordinated their costumes to match.

As Esposito and Ryan joined in on the teasing, Beckett resisted the urge to bang her head against the nearest wall and vowed to buy her costume ahead of time next year.


	40. one a day keeps the book signings away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett loses a bet against Castle, and now it's time to pay the price.

"Castle, do I really have to do this?"

"Yup! You lost the bet, time to pay the price."

"But why did you have to pick this?"

"You never know, you might like it. It could be really fun!"

"Fun for you maybe."

"Yeah, that's true. This time will definitely be a lot more interesting than all the other times I've done it."

"Ugh-"

"Nuh uh, no more griping, it's time to go. You'll be fine. All you have to do is sign Nikki's name."

Despite her protests, Castle pushed Beckett through the door and into the main lobby of a book store, where a signing for the latest 'Nikki Heat' book was about to take place.

As soon as the massive group of people caught sight of her, they went nuts with shouts of 'It's Nikki!' and 'Nikki Heat is here too?'.

Castle steered her towards the table and they sat down next to each other in front of the lines of people. Beckett bit back a groan as Castle started signing books, knowing that she was going to have to sit there with nothing to do- Who would want 'Nikki's' autograph?- for the many, many hours it would take to go through all the people.

Hours later, Beckett signed 'Nikki Heat' for the thousandth time and rubbed her sore hand, wishing that she had gotten to just sit there and do nothing.

Who knew most of them actually wanted her to sign their books too?


	41. one a day keeps the jelly filled bear claws away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crack!Fic Vampire!Beckett. Beckett won't let Castle taste her specially made 'jelly' filled bear claws, and now he knows why.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had just watched The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice (the one where Stana is a vampire) and this is what happened. I'm sorry.

Castle looked around the deserted bullpen late one night as he carefully unlocked the bottom drawer of Beckett's desk, pulling out a bag containing a single jelly-filled bear claw.

Every so often, Beckett would bring a bag of bear claws to the precinct, and hoarded them for herself. She had brought them a total five times, and he had yet to get a single taste of them.

Now that was about to change.

Another quick look around revealed that Beckett was still in the restroom, so he quickly pulled out the pastry and was just about to take a bite out of it when Beckett walked into the bullpen, a look of horror on her face when she realized what he had in his hands.

"Castle!" She yelled, and making a split second suggestion, he bit down on the pastry.

And immediately regretted doing it.

As soon as the 'jelly' filling hit his tongue, he started gagging and instantly, Beckett was by his side, handing him a napkin to spit it out in, along with his coffee to wash the taste out of his mouth with.

He took the napkin gratefully and spit out the piece he had bitten off, quickly throwing it in the trash then using another napkin to wipe off his tongue before taking a big gulp of coffee.

That he nearly choked on when he saw how _bloody_ the napkin he had just used was.

It couldn't be.

But it had definitely tasted like it was.

Castle watched in slight horror as Beckett picked up the bear claw and took a bite out of it, not flinching at the taste at all.

When she finished chewing the bite she had taken, she smirked at the writer, letting him get a good look at her fangs, hoping to scare him off.

Unfortunately for her, it had the opposite effect. She had piqued his curiosity and he wasn't going to stop until he got answers.


	42. one a day keeps the Fourth of July away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the first summer Castle has actually gotten to spend shadowing Beckett, and he finds out that she and Lanie have a big Fourth of July party every year.

"You remember it's your turn to do Fourth of July this year, right?" Lanie asked Beckett as she walked into the bullpen one day in late June.

"No it's not." Beckett replied while Castle, who was sitting in his normal seat, looked on in interest. This was the first summer since he had been shadowing her that he got to actually work with her during the summer.

"Nuh uh, we switched last year because something was up with your dad's lake house, remember?"

"You have a lake house?" Castle butted in, but she ignored him in favor of talking to Lanie.

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that, some of the pipes had busted and the whole place was a mess. I should probably go call dad and remind him."

Beckett got up and headed to the break room to call her dad so she could talk with at least a little bit of privacy, leaving Castle sitting at the desk with unanswered questions when Lanie headed back down to the morgue.

They got a case as soon as Beckett came back into the bullpen, so he didn't get a chance to find out more until later that day when Beckett brought it up while talking to Esposito.

"So," She started with a smirk towards Esposito. "I hear Lanie invited you to our family's Fourth of July party, any particular reason she would do that?"

Beckett watched him stutter for a few minutes, trying to form an response, before taking pity on him and turning her attention towards Ryan.

"Are you and Jenny doing anything for the Fourth of July?"

"Eh, not really. Neither of our families really do much, we were planning to go watch the fireworks though."

"You two should join us then, I can guarantee it will be a lot more entertaining than fighting the crowds here in the city to watch the fireworks."

"You sure?"

"Yeah if nothing else, you should come so Esposito here can have an excuse to come." She then turned around to see Castle looking at her curiously. "What?"

"So do you and Lanie do this every year?"

"Yeah, we switch off every year though. So one year we go to her family's place, then the next we go to mine. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. I just never knew that."

They fell into silence as she did paperwork for a few minutes before she felt like she had to speak up.

"I'd ask if you wanted to come too, but I know you probably have plans in the Hamptons, or something."

"Actually, we don't this year. Alexis wants to spend it with Ashley, which wouldn't be a problem except for he has to be with his family for most of the day and wouldn't be able to make it up to the Hamptons in time. So we were just planning on doing a little something here in the city."

"You are all welcome to come then."

"Really? All four of us?"

"Yup, with all of Lanie's family, there are so many people going to come that a few more isn't going to make a difference."

They talked about it a little bit longer- discussing details like if he should bring anything, when to show up, and directions to the lake house- and soon it was getting late, and it was time for Castle to head home.

He was just about to walk out of the bullpen when Beckett called out one last thing.

"Oh, and you all will probably want to bring swimsuits, or come wearing them."

"Okay? Why?"

"You'll see."


	43. one a day keeps Josh away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place a few hours after the ending of Countdown. Beckett comes to a decision and then ends up running into Castle at Remmy's.

The silence that had settled in Beckett's apartment as she and Josh sat on the couch, cuddled together, was broken by the loud ringing of Josh's phone.

He unwrapped one of his arms from around her back and reached for the phone he had placed on the coffee table in front of them, quickly bringing it up to his ear and answering it.

He didn't even stay on the phone for a minute before he hung up with a sigh, and untangled himself from Beckett.

"Sorry babe, they need me down at the hospital. You'll be okay, right?"

He was standing in front of her, looking down at her on the couch and her automatic response was to say that she was fine.

But then she stopped and really thought about it, realizing that no, she wouldn't be okay. And so she told him that, causing him to just stare at her, not knowing what to say.

"I'm so sorry, but it's only me and another doctor on call tonight. I can't not go in, I'm sorry." He really was truly sorry- she could see it in his eyes that he really didn't want to leave her- but he had a job to do.

"I understand."

"I knew you would, I'll be back as soon as I possibly can." Josh leaned down to give her forehead a kiss, since her head was tilted down, but she held a hand out to stop him.

"I understand, I really do. But I don't think I can do this anymore. At first I loved that you were so busy because it meant that you understood how busy I was with my job as well, and understood that the times we could actually spend time together would be rare. And that has worked out wonderfully for us, until now. You haven't been there when I needed you, and I know you would have been if you could have, but that's the thing. You couldn't. You're either off in some foreign country saving lives, or you still have to go into work and save lives anyway."

"Babe, Kate, I'm sorry, you know I am. Please don't do this."

She was looking straight at him now, and it nearly broke her heart seeing how upset he was becoming, but even if they made their relationship work now, they would just end up in this exact same situation on down the line.

"I can't, I'm sorry."

"So that's it, then?"

Beckett nodded and then leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes, listening to Josh slowly move through her apartment, gathering up all the various little things of his he had left over the time they had been dating.

"Kate." She opened her eyes to see him standing in front of her again, this time holding a duffel bag, that he had left over here once, full of his stuff.

"It's for the best... I'll see you out." Beckett pushed herself up off the couch and followed him to the door, where he turned around and gave her one last kiss on the check before walking out of the door, and out of her life.

~~~

Richard Castle had tried everything to keep him busy enough to stop thinking about Beckett, but nothing was working.

He tried writing, but it had only taken half an hour before he found himself typing Beckett instead of Nikki.

He tried playing a number of video games, but still managed to find himself thinking about the detective.

He even started cleaning the house, but that didn't last very long at all before his thoughts were once again drifting back to her.

He was even thinking about using his very neglected gym membership card and go down to the gym, before his stomach growling made him realize that it was dinner time and that it had been a very long time since he had eaten.

With a certain place in mind, he grabbed his keys and headed out of his apartment building to hail a cab.

It didn't take long for the cab to make its way through traffic and come to a stop outside of Remmy's.

Quickly paying the cabby, Castle headed inside the restaurant, his eyes quickly searching the place for any familiar faces before finding a very familiar face in what they considered 'their' spot.

"This seat taken?" He asked as soon as he got next to the table, quickly sliding into his normal seat when she looked up and nodded with a surprised look on her face.

"Fancy seeing you here, no Chinese take-out today?" He caught the eye of their waitress as he talked and she nodded, signaling that she knew he wanted his normal order.

"Yeah well, it's been a long day. Remmy's sounded good when I realized that I hadn't eaten yet." Beckett said, toying with the straw of her strawberry milkshake.

"Nothing like a great Remmy's burger and shake after nearly dieing, twice."

She didn't seem like she was in much of a mood for talking, so Castle tried to stay as quiet as long as he possibly could.

That only lasted until the waitress brought out his chocolate shake a few minutes later.

"So...I kinda figured you and Dr. Motorcycle Boy would be out having a nice dinner tonight, you know, to celebrate you not dieing."

"He had to work."

"Ah well, I'm sure he'll find a way to make it up to you." He was trying to make her feel better, since she was obviously down about something, but it was just having the opposite effect.

He didn't realize why until she spoke again.

"We broke up."

"You what now? What happened to 'we still have a chance'?" He was torn between running around the restaurant, screaming how happy he was, and being sad that she was upset about it.

"I realized that even though he didn't leave this time, he would eventually leave again. So even if we worked through it now, we'd be in the same situation again in the future. It was best to just end it now."

"I'm sorry." He said, and just like with Josh, she could tell that he really was sorry.

Their food came just a few seconds after that so they started talking about food, which lead to them talking about various other things and by the time they were finished with their meal, Beckett was feeling better.

She took one last large gulp of her milkshake and a cold chill went through her when she swallowed it, reminding her of their time in the freezer.

As she watched him finish up the last of his burger, she thought about all that had happened, and been said, that day and realized that she had made the right choice.

"What are you planning to do now?" She asked once he was through with his meal.

"I don't really know. I was kind of thinking about watching a movie on the shower curtain, since I haven't taken it down yet, but that's really only fun if you are watching with someone else, and since Mother and Alexis are still in the Hamptons..." He trailed off and glanced at her. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to join me for an evening of movie watching, would you?"

He never in a million years thought she would actually even think about accepting, so he was understandably shocked when she asked what movies they would watch.

"Uh er. Um whatever you want to watch... We have nearly everything, you could choose."

"Sure, why not?" Beckett stood up from their table and headed out the door with Castle scrambling to pay their bill and follow her.

~~~

"Aww, that's so adorable!" Alexis quietly said when she and Martha walked into the loft early the next morning to find both Castle and Beckett fast asleep on the couch pullout bed in front of the make-shift movie screen.

The detective and writer were asleep on separate sides of the bed- surrounded by half empty bottles of various drinks and empty bowls of popcorn- their arms stretched across the space between them, hands gently clasped together as they slept.

"Quick, get a picture before they wake up!" Martha whispered to Alexis who quickly did as she was told, wondering how they would react if she got it framed and hung it on the wall.


	44. one a day keeps the picture away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beckett finds a certain picture hanging up in Castle's loft.

Three weeks after the freezer/bomb event- and the movie marathon afterwards- Castle walked into the loft, with Beckett in tow. They were just stopping by the loft for a few minutes so he could change shirts after having spilt coffee all over him.

He was right in the middle of explaining to Beckett that this is why he needed to actually have a locker at the precinct- so he could keep extra clothes there- when he noticed a new picture hanging up on the living room wall.

Quicker than anyone thought possible, Castle was across the room, pulling down the picture and hiding it from Beckett's line of sight. Which just made Beckett extremely curious about it.

"Castle, what are you doing?"

"Nothing, nothing at all... I'm just going to go change shirts now." He started walking backwards towards his bedroom, keeping the picture frame securely hidden behind his back.

"Castle...Show me." She walked towards him and he started backing up faster. He didn't realize that it was just making her want to see whatever it was he was hiding even more.

"Alright fine, just go get dressed so we can leave."

"Okay, be back in a minute." Castle turned his back to her- after moving the picture in front of him- and she quickly ran after him, snaking her arms around him to grab the picture frame from the unsuspecting writer.

"Kate! Give it back!" He desperately tried to grab it back from her, but she jumped out of his reach.

"Now, let's see just what this is..." Beckett turned the picture frame over and let out a gasp when she saw the two of them laying in bed together after their movie marathon.

"Castle." She ground out and he immediately tried to defend himself.

"It wasn't me, I swear! Mother must have taken it. I swear this is the first time I've seen it. She must have put it up while we were working on this case."

"You honestly didn't know anything about this?"

"I swear I knew nothing."

"Fine, then you won't mind if I get rid of this, right?"

"But- Er, yeah... Go ahead." Yes, he did mind. But if he told her that he wanted to keep it, she'd probably shoot him.

"Good, go get dressed so we can finish solving this case."

Within a few minutes, he was dressed in a clean shirt and they were on their way to talk to their latest suspect, the picture safely tucked away in the trunk of her car.

~~~

 

Later that night, Castle came home to find Alexis sitting on the couch doing her homework.

"Hey dad? What happened to the picture that was hanging up on the wall earlier?"

"Beckett happened. We had to stop by here earlier today so I could change my shirt after Ryan spilled coffee all over me and she saw it even though I tried to hide it. It's probably in millions of tiny little pieces right now..." He said with a sigh, mourning the loss of a picture he didn't even know existed until just a few hours ago.

"You know that wasn't the only copy, right?"

A few minutes later, Castle had a new addition to the pictures on his desk- in a double sided frame so he could easily switch it to a picture of him and Alexis should Beckett ever venture into his office.

~~~

What Castle would never know is that Beckett didn't rip up the picture, instead she hung it up in her bedroom, right next to the pictures of her family that she cherished the most.


	45. one a day means Alexander is not going away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Crack!Fic. Beckett finally starts to realize that Alexander is never going to go away...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another from the Alexander!Verse.

Castle woke up to the now very familiar sound, and feeling, of a certain detective landing on his bed early in the morning. Six o'clock every morning Beckett would attempt to get dressed, and be promptly be sucked into Alexander, and thrown out onto Castle's bed, as soon as she reached inside the closet.

It only took two mornings of being rudely awakened by someone landing on top of him before Castle realized it would be better if he started sleeping on the other side of the bed.

So now, instead of waking up because of Beckett landing on top of him, he woke up to the sound of her grumbling when she lands in bed next to him.

"Mornin' Beckett." He mumbled while stretching back out as he got ready for the new day.

"Shut up, Castle. Just, shut up."

Quickly figuring out that she was not in a good mood this morning, he was about to ask what was wrong when he rolled over to face her, and immediately knew what was wrong.

Apparently Alexander thought it would be funny spit her out wearing only her bra and underwear. Her lacy red bra and underwear.

He was definitely going to have to find a way to thank that closet, some how.

"It's not that bad, at least you've figured out how to bully the closet into taking you back to your apartment now so you don't have to get a cab back to your place."

She glared at him and he realized that he should probably just stop talking because anger plus no coffee equals a very, very scary Beckett.

"I'm just going to go...to the bathroom now." He climbed out of bed and headed into the bathroom to give her some privacy to force her closet into submission.

Though her yelling at the closet in her underwear was a sight he really wouldn't mind seeing.

Castle was in the middle of brushing his teeth, listening to Beckett yell in the bedroom, when he heard her say something very interesting.

Rinsing out his mouth as quick as he could, he rushed out to see Beckett just about to step into the somehow very defeated looking closet.

"You named him Alexander?" Beckett turned back towards the writer to see that he had a huge smirk on his face.

That was it, she was going to find a way to get rid of Alexander once and for all.

~~~

 

That night she went home, packed a bag, and headed to a hotel on the complete opposite side of town- just to be sure.

Before she went to bed, she placed the clothes she had brought with her into the tiny- black hole free- hotel closet.

The next morning, she wrapped herself in a towel after her shower, and without even thinking, opened the hotel closet to get some clothes, and was immediately greeted by empty space.

"You aren't going to go away no matter what I do, are you?" She was able to say right before she was sucked through the closet and thrown out on what was becoming a very familiar bed.

As Beckett lay there, waiting to see if she was going to be lucky enough to sneak out without Castle waking up, she realized that she was going to be stuck with Alexander.

Forever.


	46. one a day keeps the fake pictures away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is a very interesting picture of Castle and Beckett in the paper, and Lanie wants some answers.

"Katherine Beckett! You have got a lot of explaining to do!" Beckett tensed as she heard her apparently very angry best friend yell as soon as she got off the elevator.

"I know you and Writer Boy like to have your secrets, but don't you think your best friend deserves to find out these kinds of things from you, instead of finding out when she opens up the paper to page six!" Lanie stormed into the bullpen, so focused on getting answers from Beckett that she didn't even notice when Esposito and Ryan both ducked under their desks in fear of the short medical examiner.

"What are you talking abo-" Beckett didn't even get to finish her question before Lanie shoved a picture of her and Castle, from the paper, in her face.

The picture was just of the two of them window shopping while holding hands, it wasn't until she looked to the right of the picture and saw an enlarged picture of their hands that she knew why Lanie was angry.

The enlarged version clearly showed an engagement ring on her left hand.

"Lanie," She started with a sigh and held up her ring free hand. "They must have just photoshopped it, or something, to start up rumors. It's not true."

"It's...Not?"

"Nope, I don't know whose ring that is, but it's not mine."

"Oh, okay. Sorry about that."

Lanie took back the picture from her and then headed back down to the morgue, finally allowing the boys to crawl out from under their desks once she was gone.

Once Lanie was gone, Beckett let her hand trail down the chain that held her mother's ring around her neck, grinning when she felt the new addition to the chain.

She didn't lie- that really was a fake picture- she just left out the part about wearing her real engagement ring on her necklace until she was ready to let the rest of the world know she was engaged to Richard Castle.


	47. one a day keeps the red shells away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castle and Beckett play another wii game while waiting for information about their case.

"Oh come on! I would have won if you hadn't unleashed that red shell on me!"

"I know, that was the point."

"So unfair. That's the third time in a row you've beat me!"

"Aw, is little Ricky upset he lost a little game?"

"Yes. Yes I am. And I'm never going to forgive you. Unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you kiss me."

"...Kiss you?"

"Yup, to sooth the pain of defeat."

"In your dreams."

"Actually-"

"Don't. Don't even finish that sentence. It's your turn to pick a course."

"Fine."

The writer and detective started another race on Mario Kart, passing the time until Ryan and Esposito got back from tracking down a lead in their latest case.

They were neck and neck, as usual, but Castle's constant sighing and pouting was distracting her.

Finally, as they started on their final lap, she gave in.

The soft touch of her lips to his cheek had him frozen in place, Mario- his character- continually bumping against the wall while King Boo zoomed on ahead of him with Beckett laughing at her easy victory the whole way.


	48. one a day doesn't keep the inevitable away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yet another Countdown fic. Another take on what could have happened.

She watched as Castle walked away, but didn't have a chance to say anything else before Josh wrapped his arms around her from behind. She turned around and hugged him back but there was something that had been bugging her for a while now.

Even though now probably wasnt the best time to bring it up, she did it anyway.

"You're going to have to go to Haiti, aren't you? Maybe not right now, but soon right? It doesn't seem right that they would let you get off that easily, especially with such short notice."

Josh pulled back from her and looked at her guiltily.

"I'm sorry, you're right. They want me to fly out next week instead. I was hoping things would be better for the both of us by then." Beckett sighed and pulled out of his embrace.

"I don't want you to go."

"Kate..."

"I know, I know I can't ask you to give up your job just for me. You have lives to save, and you're good at it. Really good. But... I need someone who is going to be there for me, and I can be there for him. You are wonderful Josh, really, but how much do you really know about what I deal with everyday? And for that matter, I know next to nothing about what your life is like at work."

He tried to step towards her, but she stepped back to keep some space between them.

"Kate please, don't do this."

"I'm sorry, but it's not just about me either. We both work hectic jobs, and rarely do our schedules match up so we can be together. You need someone who will be there for you when you are off work, not someone who regularly forgets about dates because she gets too wrapped up in a case. I loved you, Josh, but we can't do this to each other anymore."

"I dont like it, but I understand what you mean. Honestly I'm surprised this didnt come up sooner." Josh leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. "Promise me one thing though?"

"What?"

"Don't be alone tonight. It's hard enough to deal with the fact that you are breaking up with me, I couldn't stand knowing that you were trying to deal with everything that happened today alone."

She gave him a small smile and a nod, but he could tell she wasn't really going to do that.

"Kate, promise me. If you don't I'll-"

"You'll what?" She cut him off, causing him to smirk.

"I'll get ahold of your 'partner' and tell him that you need company. If I'm out of the picture, he'll be over here in a heartbeat. Did you know that the first thing he wanted to know was where you were? The paramedic was trying to tell him about what had happened, but he wasn't having any of it. I bet if I hadn't came to check on him when I did, he would have jumped right out of that ambulance and started looking for you."

Stunned at the fact that he had asked for her first thing after a near death experience like that, she could only nod her head.

This time, Josh could tell that her mind was already headed in the right direction so he said his goodbyes and left.

He didn't like it at all but deep inside, he knew it was for the best and would have happened eventually anyway.  
He had known from the moment he had seen the guy, and how they looked at each other, that this moment would happen.  
He loved her, so he was willing to let her go as long as it meant she was happy.

A few minutes later, Beckett gathered up her purse and jacket and headed into the elevator, not exactly sure what to do yet.

But when she got down to the lobby and found Castle just getting off the phone, heading for a cab, she knew what she wanted- needed- to do.

Castle had just slid into the cab, and shut the door behind him, when it was pulled open and a familiar female voice told him to move over.

He complied, with no small amount of surprise, as Beckett slid into the space he had just vacated.

"Where to?" The cab asked before he could question the detective and Castle looked at her, not knowing what she had planned.  
Beckett gave the cabby Castle's address and with a small lurch, they were on there way.

"Uh, Beckett?"

"You still got that shower curtain hanging up? I think a mind-numbing movie marathon is exactly what we need right now."

He answered her question with a grin and soon they were trying to figure out what movies they should watch.

Castle had a million and one questions, but she was here with him now.

That's all that mattered, his questions could wait.


	49. one a day doesn't keep nicknames away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Esposito attempts to hide from a certain person, and fails.

Esposito cowered in an unused storage closet that no one ever used, hiding from a certain person.

No, he wasn't hiding from Lanie, he was hiding from someone who was a considerable bit smaller than his fiance.

The poor detective nearly jumped out of his skin when his cell phone rang loudly, and he quickly silenced it so the sound wouldn't give his position away.

But it was too late.

The door to the closet swung open and a small figure attached itself to Esposito.

"I founded you, Uncle Popo!" The little girl giggled, calling her 'uncle' by her favorite nickname for him.

"It's 'found' not 'founded', but come on, Jo. Stop calling me that. It's Esposito. Es-po-si-to. Say it with me?" He tried to get the little girl to say his name, but Johanna Castle wasn't having any of it.

"Uncle Popo is Uncle Popo!"

"So this is where you were hiding, 'Uncle Popo'." Came a teasing voice from the door way.

"Mama! I found him for you!" Johanna let go of Esposito, and instead latched onto Beckett's legs.

"Yes you did. Why don't you go find daddy, or Ryan, while I talk to Popo about work?"

Johanna quickly ran out of the storage closet in search of her father while Beckett turned her attention to Esposito.

"We found out that Roslin's father-in-law might not be as squeaky clean as he led us to believe so I need you to see what you can dig up on him."

"Sure thing. But can you please talk to Jo about her fascination with nicknames?"

"Why ever would I do that, Popo?" Beckett laughed evilly while walking out of the closet, leaving a sighing detective behind.

He was doomed to be called 'Popo' forever.

Though as he walked out and caught sight of the little girl sitting on Ryan's lap, he figured that 'Popo' was better than 'Anan', the name she had given Ryan.


	50. one a day doesn't keep the anniversary away...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the second anniversary of Castle working with Beckett, time to celebrate

"Good morning!" Castle called out to the detectives in the bullpen, before turning to the few guys carrying boxes behind him. "You can just set those in the break room over there."

Curiosity getting the best of her, Beckett cautiously walked over to the boxes after the men placed them in the break room and left.

"Castle? What's in the boxes?"

"Cookies."

"Cookies? All of these boxes have cookies in them? Were you planning to feed the whole Homicide Division?"

"Actually, yes I am." He gave her a huge grin but she just stared at him, seemingly not knowing what was going on.

"And why exactly are you doing this?"

"You don't know what today is?"

"Nope." She watched as his face fell the slightest bit, before he quickly pulled himself together.

"Why Detective, I can't believe you forgot! Today is our second anniversary!"

Of course, the two nosy detectives picked that time to pop in and over hear their conversation.

"Anniversary? You guys'? There something you want to tell us about?" Ryan teased while Beckett just rolled her eyes at all of them.

"I have no idea what he is talking about."

"Two years ago today, you arrested me and we worked together on the Tisdale case."

"In other words, the day I realized I must have done something really horrible in a past life to be stuck with you." She shot back at him with a smirk before snatching a cookie out of one of the many boxes and walking out of the break room.

"Guys! Castle brought cookies for everyone!" Beckett's yell had the sweets deprived officers stampeding towards the break room, causing the rest of her team to be stuck inside for a while.

That gave her plenty of time to make sure her plans were finalized.

~~~

The rest of the day was spent just like normal, no more mentions of the anniversary- except for the cookie crumbs everywhere.

It wasn't like he expected Beckett to throw a party or anything like that, but it would have been nice if she had actually acknowledged what day it was.

But no, she wouldn't even take him up on his offer of free drinks at the 'Old Haunt'.

"For the millionth time, Castle, I have too much paperwork to catch up on today."

"But Beckett!"

Esposito and Ryan walked up at that moment, telling them that they were going to head on down to the bar and that they would meet the two of them there when they stopped arguing over it.

"Come on, please?"

"Castle-" Her phone chimed and she looked at it, quickly reading the text message she had received. "-Fine, if you want me to go so bad, then you can wait half an hour while I finish at least some of this paperwork."

"Yes!" Castle fist pumped the air and Beckett turned her focus back on the folder she was reading, bring it up slightly in front of her face to hide the smirk she couldn't stop from showing.

He had no idea.

~~~

Forty-five minutes later- much to Castle's disappointment- the detective and writer were heading to the bar.

When they got there, Castle got out of the car, but Beckett stayed behind, saying she had to make a call first.

At her insistence, he headed into the bar without her.

What he didn't know, was that as soon as he got out of the car, she made a mad dash towards the backdoor, slipping inside and getting into position just as he opened the front door.

"Happy Anniversary!" Way too many voices yelled when he walked into the bar, and as soon as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of the room, he could tell that nearly the whole Homicide division was there.

The officers and other detectives all greeted him with various things- "Congrats on surviving two years!" "Didn't think you'd make it this long!"- but he was really only paying attention to the female detective smirking near the back of the bar.

Castle pushed his way, politely, through the crowd of officers until he was standing in front of Beckett.

"You-you remembered?"

"Of course."

"And you set this all up?"

"Well, I had a little help but-" She was cut off as he gathered her into his arms for a massive hug- much to the amusement of the bar patrons.

"Castle, let me go!" Red-faced, she tried to struggle out of his grip when the teasing from her fellow officers and detectives started, but he didn't let go until Esposito commented that if they didn't break apart soon, he was going to get a water house after them.

He finally let her go, but it was too late.

People had already started taking out their cell phones and snapping pictures.

They were never going to let her live this down.


End file.
